Calculation of Anti-Icing Current for Catenary Based on Meteorological Parameters

To address the icing problem of elevated overhead catenary systems in urban rail transit under low-temperature, humid-wind and precipitation conditions, a method for calculating anti-icing current and ice-melting current from meteorological parameters is proposed. Based on the Bursdorf empirical formula, the method separately calculates conductor Joule heating, wind-cooling heat dissipation, thermal resistance of the ice layer and heat required for ice melting. The results of a single contact wire and a single messenger wire are then combined into the conductor-group current according to the double-messenger and double-contact-wire structure. Taking the 2×JT150+2×CTA150 overhead catenary system of an elevated section in a certain city as the object, case analyses are carried out for temperature, wind speed, ice thickness and ice-melting duration. The results show that when the temperature decreases from -3 ℃ to -8 ℃, the anti-icing conductor-group current increases from 926 A to 1511 A, and the ice-melting conductor-group current increases from 1084 A to 1651 A. When the wind speed increases from 0 m/s to 8 m/s, the anti-icing conductor-group current increases from 357 A to 2328 A, and the ice-melting conductor-group current increases from 806 A to 2207 A. The 500 A current-raising test shows that after 30 min, the temperature rise of the contact wire conductor is 44.4 K and that of the messenger wire conductor is 25.2 K, both below the 90 ℃ limit.