Keywords: catenary system, contact wire, numerical analyses, finite element model, uplift, dynamic response, optimization, existing catenary lines, Norwegian railways, pantograph-catenary interaction.

An ever increasing demand for reduced travel time makes it important to exploit the full capacity of existing overhead railway catenary systems. This has become a pressing issue in Norway due to the fact that the major part of the existing catenary is designed for a maximum speed of only 130 km/h. In many places there is no plan to reconstruct the railway line. It is therefore important to optimize these sections to increase the train velocity and thus reduce the overall travel time. In this paper the focus for such an optimization has been on what effects different tension forces have on the dynamic response in an existing catenary system called Tabell 54. This has been investigated by running dynamic analyses on finite element models made of existing railway catenary sections with different tension forces. It has been found that the dynamic response of the examined catenary system may be reduced significantly by changing the tension forces. The train speed may thus be increased when only the dynamic behaviour of this existing catenary is taken into account.

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