The contact arc caused by pantograph-catenary (PC) electrical contact failure happens frequently and it can severely affect the current collecting quality of PC. In this paper, the methods of arc suppression through optimizing the catenary structure are tried. First, the mechanism of contact arc in PC system is analyzed based on sliding electrical contact theory, and a probability algorithm of contact arc is proposed. Then, the PC dynamic structure model is established in order to obtain some key parameters of diverse catenary structure. Finally, the contact rate is calculated and under the different parameters in PC system and the suppression methods are analyzed based on it. This study can support the assessment of electrical contact quality in PC system in future study.

Electrified railway,pantograph-catenary,electrical contact,arc