| Abstract: | In Japan speed tests in the region of 300 km/h have been carried out since the Oyama test line recorded a 319 km/h run in 1979. TGV recorded a 515.3 km/h run by an electric locomotive installed with a pantograph in 1990 and ICE achieved 406.9 km/h using a similar train in 1988. High-speed current collection tests over 400 km/h using electric railcars have been desired in Japan. Problems of high-speed tests are; train speed approaching wave propagation velocity, multipantograph resonance, and too large uplift of contact wires caused by lift. It is necessary to keep wave propagation velocity of contact wire higher than train speed. CS contact wire and TA contact wire were compared in high-speed tests because it was impossible to get a good current-collecting performance by using hard-drawn copper contact wires. In December 1993 using these contact wires we carried out high-speed tests in the region of 400 km/h on Jyoetsu Shinkansen with the test train STAR 21 which JR-EAST built for high-speed tests. This paper reports the current collecting performance of these contact wires predicted by simulation and running tests at 425 km/h. |
