Transient Analysis of Electric Arc Burning at Insulated Rail Joints in High-Speed Railway Stations Based on State-Space Modeling

This paper aims to study the arc burning phenomenon of insulated rail joints in high-speed railway stations. First, combined with the actual situation of station and the grounding mode of electric multiple units, the potential difference between the two ends of insulated rail joint is calculated before the wheel’s arriving at the cutoff point. Then, transient analysis is carried out for the ordinary wheel and the discharge wheel, respectively. Each transient process is divided into three parts: the wheel reaches the cutoff point, bridges the cutoff point, and generates an arc. The equivalent state-space model is established for each part of transient process. The corresponding voltage and current waveforms are calculated by the state-space model analysis using MATLAB software. Through substituting a theoretical arc model that combines the Cassie and Mayr models into the state equation, the waveforms of arc voltage and arc current for the ordinary wheel and the discharge wheel are achieved, respectively. As a result, the transient analyses are in line with field observation records. The calculated arc waveforms appear to be in good agreement with the ones recorded by experiment.