Risk Assessment for Electrified Railway Catenary System Under Comprehensive Influence of Geographical and Meteorological Factors

Catenary is essential for electric locomotives to obtain electric energy, and it is crucial to the normal and stable operation of electric locomotives. However, the catenary is completely exposed outdoors without backup equipment. Therefore, compared with other power supply equipment in traction substation, catenary is more likely to be affected by external geographical and meteorological factors. In order to comprehensively assess the probability and consequence of catenary failures under the impact of external geographical and meteorological factors, a risk assessment method for electrified railway catenary is proposed in this article. First, the influence of external geographical and meteorological factors on catenary failures is analyzed based on the actual operation records. Then, considering the high efficiency and service characteristics of railway transportation, the risk consequence indicators are established, and the cumulative risk of catenary failure is quantitatively evaluated. Based on this, the risk classification method is proposed, and the risk level of catenary is visualized with geographic information system (GIS) technology. Finally, the risk contribution indicator is proposed to describe the influence of catenary component on the total risk of catenary failures. The catenary failure records of Beijing–Shanghai Railway within the administration of Shanghai Railway Bureau in 2017 are used for a study case. The results show that the proposed method can comprehensively quantify and visualize the risk of catenary failures. Also, the critical components of the catenary system can be identified, which can provide effective information for the maintenance decision-making process.