Pantograph-Catenary Arcing Detection Based on Electromagnetic Radiation

Currently, the detection equipment for offline arcing on high-speed trains is of great interest because it can evacuate the contact state between the contact wire and the strip. In order to ensure the safety of the train under the effect of the arcing, the self-designed fourth-order Hilbert curve fractal antenna is chosen to detect the arcing, in this paper, based on its electromagnetic radiation signal. Aspects of time-, frequency-, and joint time-frequency-domain analyses of the signals were considered. Meanwhile, the experiments were conducted several times with different circuit currents and different electrode gaps, and the electromagnetic pulses under different moments were studied. Results indicated that the electromagnetic radiation pulses were corresponding to the abrupt variations of voltage during arcing, and all the characteristic frequencies were located at similar values (18 MHz). Mechanisms of using the short-time Fourier transform method to obtain an accurate arcing moment, extinguished time, and arcing duration have been explained in detail. Thus, the characteristics of arcing electromagnetic radiation could become the significant and efficient parameters to detect the pantograph-catenary operation state of high-speed trains.