Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Performance of a High-Speed Railway Pantograph with a Streamlined Carbon Contact Strip

Pantograph drag and aeroacoustic noise increase with railway operating speed. This study evaluates a streamlined carbon contact strip (CCS) for a CX-NG high-speed railway pantograph. A broadband noise source model using a steady renormalization-group (RNG) k − ε solution located near-field source regions, whereas far-field noise was predicted using the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings formulation driven by transient Large Eddy Simulation (LES). Rounded and elliptical parameter families were screened before a combined section with a 9 mm leading-edge fillet and an 18 mm downstream semi-major axis was assessed on the full pantograph. Across 250–400 km/h, total drag decreased by 17.3–18.7% under knuckle-downstream operation and by 18.4–19.1% under knuckle-upstream operation. At 350 km/h in the knuckle-downstream orientation, total drag decreased by 18.7%, and the maximum far-field sound-pressure-level reduction was 5.51 dB at a streamwise point 5 m from the pantograph centreline. The corresponding reductions at representative spanwise, streamwise, and normal points were 2.81, 2.05, and 1.11 dB. Streamlining shifted the dominant noise bands towards lower frequencies, but full-pantograph lift did not improve consistently. The results support comparative drag and noise benefits under the modeled conditions. The predicted acoustic reductions depend on receiver location and direction.