An Online Monitoring Device for Pantograph Catenary Arc Temperature Detect Based on Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

The pantograph catenary relation is one of the three basic relationships in high-speed railway, which plays the role of current collection for the trains. As the speed of the train increases, the vibration between the pantograph and the catenary intensifies, resulting frequent off-line and arcing of the pantograph catenary. The arcing ablates the pantograph strip and catenary seriously, throwing a threat to the safety of the trains. Therefore, it is particularly important to conduct arcing monitoring for the pantograph catenary system.At present, the pantograph online monitoring is realized by detecting the electrical parameters or the ultraviolet of the pantograph catenary arc, which can only partly reflect the intensity of arcing. Temperature, recognized as an important parameter to characterize the intensity of arcing, has not been considered yet. Based on the principle of temperature measurement by atomic emission spectrometry with bi-spectrum method, this paper develops a set of online monitoring device for arc temperature of the pantograph catenary. The arc temperature is calculated by detecting and collecting the two specific spectral lines of the arcing. The device has the advantages of quick action, high sensitivity, and strong anti-interference ability. The device has been used to measure the temperature of the pantograph catenary arc under different working conditions. Results show that the developed device can effectively detect the change of time varied arc temperature under different working conditions. Meanwhile, the device can also obtain the information like the moment and duration of the arc, which provides a new approach for online monitoring of pantograph catenary interaction status.