For those of us not au fait with electrical engineering, do you fancy explaining creep and how it relates to line speed?
I will do my best Sir.
More information at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(deformation)
Creep is the tendency of a solid material (metals for example) to move slowly or deform permanently under the influence of stresses. It occurs as a result of long term exposure to high levels of stress that are below the yield strength of the material.
With the Eurostar for example as has been pointed out on the thread already,
---Quote (Originally by Alan1310)---
No expert but I am sure rolling stock type is taken into consideration as well I think there was some changes on the ECML OHL for the Eurostars but as I said I am no expert
---End Quote---
QUOTE Ainsworth74 The tension in the wires was increased, I believe, to cope with the greater uplift force exerted by the pantographs on the Eurostar sets.
Tension is a form of stress - as is compression. So creep would increase at higher stresses needed in above scenario. If you have shorter distances between the masts/cantilevers/droppers etc you must by definition have lower stress (which is Force per unit area). So I would agree that creep is only indirectly taken into consideration. Put another way, you must have seen heavy weights at periods along lines to tension the lines, well if there are more supports there is reduced stress.
I hope this sort of explains what you are asking.
