ADI-CRSTS: A New Method for the Moving Heat Sources — Application to a Train Pantograph Strip

Abstract

The pantograph strip interface involves many physical phenomena. Temperature evolution is one of them. This problem includes various thermal flux and sources. More specifically, due to the train motion, a moving zigzag heat source occurs. This paper deals with a thermal 2D Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) numerical method for temperature estimations in the train pantograph carbon strip, the aims being a better wear problems anticipation and the creation of a preventive maintenance. For that, an electrical model is coupled to the thermal one to take into account all Joule effects. The ADI strategy enables a significant computation time reduction against most classical resolution methods. Besides, the model involves two mathematical processes: the first one is an appropriate variable transform which induces a fixed surface heat production, while the second is based on locally refined meshes. Various numerical tests are presented and discussed in order to show the accuracy of the scheme. From a physical point of view, the results are much interesting. Further investigations, depending on the different parameters, should lead us to predict the strip critical thermal phases.