• Bio-inspired seal-vibrissa-shaped, perforated, and elliptical rod profiles significantly reduce vortex shedding and Kármán vortex street formation in pantograph components.
• The optimized pantograph design achieves a 6.3 dB(A) reduction in overall sound pressure level along the streamwise plane and 6.6 dB(A) along the vertical plane.
• The first tonal noise peak at ~850 Hz is greatly mitigated, and the second harmonic at 1750 Hz is completely eliminated in the optimized model.
• The study validates the effectiveness of aerodynamic noise reduction methods for high-speed train pantographs, offering practical insights for railway noise control.