Research on lightning protection performance evaluation of high-speed railway traction network

In order to improve the lightning protection performance of high-speed railway catenary, based on the temporal and spatial variation between the lightning protection performance and the lightning activity characteristic, a space-time differentiated evaluation method on catenary lightning performance is put forward after analysing the present situation and existed problems of lightning protection design. This method adopts the authentic lightning data accumulated from the lightning detection network in long-term accumulation and utilizes the grid statistical procedure of lightning parameters along catenary corridors to obtain the lightning parameters along the catenary that to be evaluated over a specified period. Moreover, according to the structure and insulating characteristics of the catenary together with the adjacent landform features, the lightning trip-out rate, the induced lightning trip-out rate, the total lightning trip-out rate and the average lightning trip-out rate of whole line has been calculated by using the lightning trip-out rate calculation method. Finally, on the basis of the weighed average lightning trip-out rate of the whole line, the temporal and spatial variation of each catenary section, power supply sections and provincial sections along the railway are evaluated. The evaluation results can help the high-speed railway operation management departments grasp the lightning protection performance of railway traction effectively, understand the lightning protection key point of the high-speed railway catenary and implement the initiative and differential lightning protection design and modification.