Keywords: structural damping, railway catenary systems, pantograph-catenary interaction, full-scale measurements, covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification, Rayleigh damping.

The amount of damping in a structure is of major importance for its dynamic behaviour. However, the magnitude may both be difficult to quantify and to generalize for large structures that are similar to one another. This is also the case for the damping in railway catenary systems. The railway catenary systems are structures considered to have low energy dissipation. However, the damping is still considered an important property for these systems. An uninterrupted contact between the pantograph and the contact wire is essential for the supply of electrical power to the train. Previous studies of the pantograph-catenary interaction have shown that the contact quality of the interaction is greatly dependent on the amount of damping in the system. The constant desire for higher train speeds makes it important to study possible limiting factors for increasing the speed at existing sections, such as the dynamic behaviour and therefore the amount of damping as an important factor. The aim of the study, presented in this paper, has been to explore system damping property of existing, still in use, railway catenary systems by analysing full-scale measurements from three railway catenary sections with different characteristics.

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