Research on Dynamic Characteristics of the APM 300 Current Collector

As an important part of the third rail current collection system, current collectors are widely used in urban rail transit. Different from the common urban rail current collector, the APM 300 collector shoe is in contact with the three planes of the unique C-shape power supply rail. Besides, there are numerous rail seams in the power supply rail line, which may force the collector shoe detached from the power supply rail. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of the current collector running on the continuous power supply rail and rail seams are analyzed, respectively. In the contact module, Point-Plane force element is used to calculate the contact force. The simulation results show that reducing the shoe mass or increasing the stiffness of the restoring tension spring can decrease the shoe-rail contact force and the lateral acceleration of the collector shoe. And the joints’ lateral and vertical deviations need to be controlled within 1.5 mm.