Bionic shape design of electric locomotive and aerodynamic drag reduction

Zhenfeng WU; Yanzhong HUO; Wangcai DING; Zihao XIE

doi:10.5604/01.3001.0012.8369

Authors

Zhenfeng WU School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China Author
Yanzhong HUO 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
Zihao XIE School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0012.8369

Keywords:

electric locomotive, bionic shape design, aerodynamic drag, numerical simulation, crocodile bionic electric locomotive

Abstract

Bionics has been widely used in many fields. Previous studies on the application of bionics in locomotives and vehicles mainly focused on shape optimisation of high-speed trains, but the research on bionic shape design in the electric locomotive field is rare. This study investigated a design method for streamlined electric locomotives according to the principles of bionics. The crocodiles were chosen as the bionic object because of their powerful and streamlined head shape. Firstly, geometric characteristic lines were extracted from the head of a crocodile by analysing the head features. Secondly, according to the actual size requirements of the electric locomotive head, a free-hand sketch of the bionic electric locomotive head was completed by adjusting the position and scale of the geometric characteristic lines. Finally, the non-uniform rational B-splines method was used to establish a 3D digital model of the crocodile bionic electric locomotive, and the main and auxiliary control lines were created. To verify the drag reduction effect of the crocodile bionic electric locomotive, numerical simulations of aerodynamic drag were performed for the crocodile bionic and bluff body electric locomotives at different speeds in open air by using the CFD software, ANSYS FLUENT16.0. The geometric models of crocodile bionic and bluff body electric locomotives were both marshalled with three cars, namely, locomotive + middle car + locomotive, and the size of the two geometric models was uniform. Dimensions and grids of the flow field were defined. And then, according to the principle of motion relativity, boundary conditions of flow field were defined. The results indicated that the crocodile bionic electric locomotive demonstrated a good aerodynamic performance. At the six sampling speeds in the range of 40–240 km/h, the aerodynamic drag coefficient of the crocodile bionic electric locomotive decreased by 7.7% on the average compared with that of the bluff body electric locomotive.

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