Comparative study of aeroacoustic performance of 1/8 and 1/1 pantographs coupled with cavity

The technology of pantograph sinking in the cavity is generally adopted in the new generation of high-speed trains in China for aerodynamic noise reduction in this region. This study takes a high-speed train with a 4-car formation and a pantograph as the research object and compares the aerodynamic acoustic performance of two scale models, 1/8 and 1/1, using large eddy simulation and Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings integral equation. It is found that there is no direct scale similarity between their aeroacoustic performance. The 1/1 model airflow is separated at the leading edge of the panhead and reattached to the panhead, and its vortex shedding Strouhal number(St) is 0.17. However, the 1/8 model airflow is separated directly at the leading edge of the panhead, and its St is 0.13. The cavity's vortex shedding frequency is in agreement with that calculated by the Rooster empirical formula. The two scale models exhibit some similar characteristics in distribution of sound source energy, but the energy distribution of the 1/8 model is more concentrated in the middle and lower regions. The contribution rates of their middle and lower regions to the radiated noise in the two models are 27.3% and 87.2%, respectively. The peak frequencies of the radiated noise from the 1/1 model are 307 and 571 Hz. The 307 Hz is consistent with the frequency of panhead vortex shedding, and the 571 Hz is more likely to be the result of the superposition of various components. In contrast, the peak frequencies of the radiated noise from the 1/8 scale model are 280 and 1970 Hz. The 280 Hz comes from the shear layer oscillation between the cavity and the bottom frame, and the 1970 Hz is close to the frequency at which the panhead vortex sheds. This shows that the scaled model results need to be corrected before applying to the full-scale model.

Influence of ground effect on flow field structure and aerodynamic noise of high-speed trains

The simulation of the ground effect has always been a technical difficulty in wind tunnel tests of high-speed trains.In this paper,large eddy simulation and the curl acoustic integral equation were used to simulate the flow-acoustic field results of high-speed trains under four ground simulation systems(GSSs):“moving ground+rotating wheel”,“stationary ground+rotating wheel”,“moving ground+stationary wheel”,and“stationary ground+stationary wheel”.By comparing the fluid-acoustic field results of the four GSSs,the influence laws of different GSSs on the flow field structure,aero-acoustic source,and far-field radiation noise characteristics were investigated,providing guidance for the acoustic wind tunnel testing of high-speed trains.The calculation results of the aerodynamic noise of a 350 km/h high-speed train show that the moving ground and rotating wheel affect mainly the aero-acoustic performance under the train bottom.The influence of the rotating wheel on the equivalent sound source power of the whole vehicle was not more than 5%,but that of the moving ground slip was more than 15%.The average influence of the rotating wheel on the sound pressure level radiated by the whole vehicle was 0.3 dBA,while that of the moving ground was 1.8 dBA.