Use of FEM models to study fatigue of overhead contact wires

Abstract

Fatigue cracks can induce fracture of the catenary Contact Wire (CW) and thus huge costs for the operator. Nowadays the wear criterion to replace the CW leads to lifespan over than 50 years, and the catenary can see a very high number of cycles so that fatigue life must be taken into account. A full process to compute the multiaxial transient stress field in the CW has been developed. A fatigue criticality indicator to assess the risk of crack initiation was introduced. This elaborate indicator is used to validate a simplified fatigue indicator based on the uniaxial Euler-Bernoulli beam stresses that are much faster to compute. This indicator is then used to assess parameters influencing the risk of fatigue in the case of junction claws.