Design of large-scale streamlined head cars of high-speed trains and aerodynamic drag calculation

Authors

  • Zhenfeng Wu School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China Author
  • Enyu Yang School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China Author
  • Wangcai Ding School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0010.6164

Keywords:

high speed train, NURBS, aerodynamic drag, streamlined head car, numerical simulation

Abstract

Aerodynamic drag plays an important role in high-speed trains, and how to reduce the aerodynamic drag is one of the most important research subjects related to modern railway systems. This paper investigates a design method for large-scale streamlined head cars of high-speed trains by adopting NURBS theory according to the outer surface characteristics of trains. This method first created the main control lines of the driver cab by inputting control point coordinates; then, auxiliary control lines were added to the main ones. Finally, the reticular region formed by the main control lines and auxiliary ones were filled. The head car was assembled with the driver cab and sightseeing car in a virtual environment. The numerical simulation of train flow field was completed through definition of geometric models, boundary conditions, and space discretization. The calculation results show that the aerodynamic drag of the high-speed train with large-scale streamlined head car decreases by approximately 49.3% within the 50-300 km/h speed range compared with that of the quasi-streamlined high-speed train. This study reveals that the high-speed train with large-scale streamlined head car could achieve the purpose of reducing running aerodynamic drag and saving energy, and aims to provide technical support for the subsequent process design and production control of high-speed train head cars.

References

ABBAS, M., RAMLI, N., MAJID, A. A., 2014. The representation of circular arc by using rational cubic timmer curve. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2014, Article ID 408492, 6 pages.

AKHRAS, H. A., ELGUEDJA, T., GRAVOUILA, A., 2016. Isogeometric analysis-suitable trivariate NURBS models from standard B-Rep models. Science Direct, 307, pp. 256-274.

BAKER, C., 2010. The flow around high speed trains. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 98(6/7), pp. 277-298.

CATMULL, E., CLARK, J., 1978. Recursively generated B-spline surfaces on arbitrary topological meshes. Computer Aided Geometric Design, 16(6), pp. 350-355.

GATILOV, S. Y., 2016. Vectorizing NURBS surface evaluation with basis functions in power basis. Computer-Aided Design, 73, pp. 26-35.

GILBERT, T., BAKER, C., QUINN, A., 2013. Aerodynamic pressures around high-speed trains: the transition from unconfined to enclosed spaces. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit), 227(6), pp. 609-622.

HERBST, A. H., MULD, T. W., EFRAIMSSON, G., 2014. Aerodynamic prediction tools for high-speed trains. International Journal of Rail Transportation, 2(1), pp. 50-58.

IBRAHIM, T., BAHATTIN, K., 2011. Multi-directional blending for heterogeneous objects. Computer Aided Design, 43(8), pp. 863-875.

JEONG, S. M., LEE, S. A., RHO, J. H., et al., 2015. Research of high-speed train pantograph shape design for noise and drag reduction through computational analysis. Journal of Fluids Engineering, 20(2), pp. 67-72.

KU, Y. C., KWAK, M. H., PARK, H. I., 2010. Multi-objective optimization of high-speed train nose shape using the vehicle modelling function. In: 48th AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, January 2010, Orlando, Fl, USA.

LEE, Y., KIM, K. H., RHO, J. H., et al., 2016. Investigation on aerodynamic drag of Korean high speed train (HEMU-430X) due to roof apparatus for electrical device. Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 30(4), pp. 1611-1616.

LUCANIN, VOJKAN, J., MIRJANA, A., 2012. Determining the influence of an air wave caused by a passing train on the passengers standing at the platform. International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 19(3), pp. 299-313.

MINHO, K., SUHWAN, Y., YEONGBIN, L., 2013. Optimum nose shape of a front-rear symmetric train for the reduction of the total aerodynamic drag. Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 27(12), pp. 3733-3743.

MOON, J. S., KIM, S. W., KWON, H. B., 2014. A study on the aerodynamic drag reduction of high-speed train using bogie side fairing. Journal of Fluids Engineering, 19(1), pp. 41-46.

OH, H. K., KWON, H., KWAK, M., et al., 2016. Measurement and analysis for the upper side flow boundary layer of a high speed train using wind tunnel experiments with a scaled model. Journal of the Korean Society for Railway, 19(1), pp. 11-19.

PAZ, C., SUÁREZ, E., GIL, C., et al., 2015. Numerical study of the impact of windblown sand particles on a high-speed train. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 145, pp. 87-93.

SUN, B., GAO, S., MA CH., 2016. Mathematical methods applied to economy optimization of an electric vehicle with distributed power train system. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2016, Article ID 4949561, 14 pages.

TIAN, H. Q., 2009. Formation mechanism of aerodynamic drag of high-speed train and some reduction measures. Journal of Central South University of Technology, 16(1), pp. 166-171.

TOBIAS, M., ELAINE, C., ROBERT, M., 2012. Mixed-element volume completion from NURBS surfaces. Computers & Graphics, 36(5), pp. 548-554.

WANG, D. P., ZHAO, W. ZH., MA, S. Q., 2007. Application of CFD numerical simulation in high speed train design. Journal of the China Railway Society, 29(5), pp. 64-68.

WATKINS, S., SAUNDERS, J., KUMAR, H., 1992. Aerodynamic drag reduction of goods trains. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 40(1), pp. 147-178.

YAO, SH. B., GUO, D. L., YANG, G. W., 2012. Three-dimensional aerodynamic optimization design of high-speed train nose based on GA-GRNN. Science China (technology science), 55(11), pp. 3118-3130.

ZHANG, Z. ZH., ZHOU, D., 2013. Wind tunnel experiment on aerodynamic characteristic of streamline head of high speed train with different head shapes. Journal of Central South University (Science and Technology), 44(6), pp. 2603-2608.

Downloads

Published

2017-12-31

Issue

Section

Original articles

How to Cite

Wu, Z., Yang, E., & Ding, W. (2017). Design of large-scale streamlined head cars of high-speed trains and aerodynamic drag calculation. Archives of Transport, 44(4), 89-97. https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0010.6164

Share

Similar Articles

1-10 of 255

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.