Instrumentation for real time monitoring of the overhead contact line acceleration

In any railway power supply system, the contact line is considered one of the most important component influencing the life cycle of the system. The analyses, which estimates the wearing of the contact line but also of the pantograph contact strips, are based on the value of the contact force, which defines the interaction between pantograph, as external component, and overhead contact line. The instrumentation solutions, developed in time of the same project, provide two systems focused for acquisitioning the acceleration and displacement information of the overhead contact line.
The first developed system uses sensor devices hanging by the contact line, having as objective to collect acceleration information at the contact point of the moving pantograph; the system is described in this paper.
The second developed system uses one high speed video camera, placed aside the rail track, which register the movements of the contact line. Being a very different technology this system will make subject of other article.
The both systems have main focus to determine, indirectly, the value of the contact force, but also to optimise a list of controllable factors.