Sensitivity analysis of catenary geometry on current collection quality

Abstract

A global sensitivity analysis is led on catenary parameters such as dropper lengths, height of the messenger wire at masts and mechanical tensions in the wires thanks to the Sobol indices. All parameters are defined using experimental measurements. A set of geometric and dynamic criteria is selected as output and the contribution of theinput parameters to the output variability is quantified. It is shown that the dynamicinteraction is mainly sensitive to the mechanical tensions in contact and messenger wires whereas existing geometric criteria are mainly dependent on height of messenger wire at masts. Moreover, selected geometric criteria available using geometry measurements are hardly correlated with dynamic criteria.