Contact wire is one of the most important components supplying electricity to railroad cars. At the beginning of the research on contact wire, wear problem caused by friction between contact wire and pantograph was considered even more important issue for the failure of contact wire. However, since several fatigue fractures were reported from Shinkansen in Japan, fatigue fracture has become another important issue for the failure of contact wire. Despite of its importance, standard of the fatigue test of contact wire has not been established yet. Thus, fatigue characteristics of contact wire is very difficult issue to evaluate quantitatively. Hence, in this study, test method simulating operating conditions of contact wire by Minsung Kang and etc. is used to evaluate the fatigue characteristics of copper alloy contact wire. Also, test results is compared with the result of Minsung Kang’s research on pure copper contact wire.
