Effect of landform on aerodynamic performance of high-speed trains in cutting under cross wind

The effects of the different landforms of the cutting leeward on the aerodynamic performance of high-speed trains were analyzed based on the three-dimensional,steady,and incompressible Navier-Stokes equation and k-double-equation turbulent model.Results show that aerodynamic forces increase with the cutting leeward slope decreasing.The maximum adding value of lateral force,lift force,and overturning moment are 147%,44.3%,and 107%,respectively,when the slope varies from 0.67 to-0.67,and the changes in the cutting leeward landform have more effects on the aerodynamic performance when the train is running in the line No.2 than in the line No.1.The aerodynamic forces,except the resistance force,sharply increase with the slope depth decreasing.By comparing the circumstance of the cutting depth H= 8 m with that of H=8 m,the resistance force,lateral force,lift force,and overturning moment increase by 26.0%,251%,67.3% and 177%,respectively.With the wind angle increasing,the resistance force is nonmonotonic,whereas other forces continuously rise.Under three special landforms,the changes in the law of aerodynamic forces with the wind angle are almost similar to one another.

Energy-absorption forecast of thin-walled structure by GA-BP hybrid algorithm

In order to analyze the influence rule of experimental parameters on the energy-absorption characteristics and effectively forecast energy-absorption characteristic of thin-walled structure, the forecast model of GA-BP hybrid algorithm was presented by unifing respective applicability of back-propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA). The detailed process was as follows. Firstly, the GA trained the best weights and thresholds as the initial values of BP-ANN to initialize the neural network. Then, the BP-ANN after initialization was trained until the errors converged to the required precision. Finally, the network model, which met the requirements after being examined by the test samples, was applied to energy-absorption forecast of thin-walled cylindrical structure impacting. After example analysis, the GA-BP network model was trained until getting the desired network error only by 46 steps, while the single BP-ANN model achieved the same network error by 992 steps, which obviously shows that the GA-BP hybrid algorithm has faster convergence rate. The average relative forecast error (A RE ) of the S EA predictive results obtained by GA-BP hybrid algorithm is 1.543%, while the A RE of the S EA predictive results obtained by BP-ANN is 2.950%, which clearly indicates that the forecast precision of the GA-BP hybrid algorithm is higher than that of the BP-ANN.

Aerodynamic performance analysis of trains on slope topography under crosswinds

This work used the computational fluid dynamics method combined with full-scale train tests to analyze the train aerodynamic performance on special slope topography. Results show that with the increment in the slope gradient, the aerodynamic forces and moment increase sharply. Compared with the flat ground condition, the lateral force, lift force, and overturning moment of the train on the first line increase by 153.2%, 53.4% and 124.7%, respectively, under the slope gradient of 20°. However, with the increment of the windward side's depth, the windbreak effect is improved obviously. When the depth is equal to 10 m, compared with the 0 m, the lateral force, lift force and overturning moment of the train on the first line decrease by 70.9%, 77.0% and 70.6%,respectively. Through analyzing the influence of slope parameters on the aerodynamic performance of the train, the relationships among them are established. All these will provide a basic reference for enhancing train aerodynamic performances under different slope conditions and achieve reasonable train speeds for the operation safety in different wind environments.

Contrastive analysis and crashworthiness optimization of two composite thin-walled structures

For the safety protection of passengers when train crashes occur, special structures are crucially needed as a kind of indispensable energy absorbing device. With the help of the structures, crash kinetic-energy can be completely absorbed or dissipated for the aim of safety. Two composite structures(circumscribed circle structure and inscribed circle structure) were constructed. In addition, comparison and optimization of the crashworthy characteristic of the two structures were carried out based on the method of explicit finite element analysis(FEA) and Kriging surrogate model. According to the result of Kriging surrogate model, conclusions can be safely drawn that the specific energy absorption(SEA) and ratio of specific energy absorption to initial peak force(REAF) of circumscribed circle structure are lager than those of inscribed circle structure under the same design parameters. In other words, circumscribed circle structure has better performances with higher energy-absorbing ability and lower initial peak force. Besides, error analysis was adopted and the result of which indicates that the Kriging surrogate model has high nonlinear fitting precision. What is more, the SEA and REAF optimum values of the two structures have been obtained through analysis, and the crushing results have been illustrated when the two structures reach optimum SEA and REAF.

Location of anemometer along Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway

Using structured mesh to discretize the calculation region, the wind velocity and pressure distribution in front of the wind barrier under different embankment heights are investigated based on the Detached Eddy Simulation(DES) with standard SpalartAllmaras(SA) model. The Reynolds number is 4.0×105 in this calculation. The region is three-dimensional. Since the wind barrier and trains are almost invariable cross-sections, only 25 m along the track is modeled. The height of embankment ranges from 1 m to 5 m and the wind barrier is 3 m high. The results show that the wind speed changes obviously before the wind barrier on the horizontal plane, which is 4.5 m high above the track. The speed of wind reduces gradually while approaching the wind barrier. It reaches the minimum value at a distance about 5 m before the wind barrier, and increases dramatically afterwards. The speed of wind at this location is linear with the speed of far field. The train aerodynamic coefficients decrease sharply with the increment of the embankment height. And they take up the monotonicity. Meanwhile, when the height increases from 3 m to 5 m, they just change slightly. It is concluded that the optimum anemometer location is nearly 5 m in front of the wind barrier.

Detached-eddy simulation of flow around high-speed train on a bridge under cross winds

In order to describe an investigation of the flow around high-speed train on a bridge under cross winds using detached-eddy simulation(DES), a 1/8th scale model of a three-car high-speed train and a typical bridge model are employed, Numerical wind tunnel technology based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD) is used, and the CFD models are set as stationary models. The Reynolds number of the flow, based on the inflow velocity and the height of the vehicle, is 1.9×10~6. The computations are conducted under three cases, train on the windward track on the bridge(WWC), train on the leeward track on the bridge(LWC) and train on the flat ground(FGC). Commercial software FLUENT is used and the mesh sensitivity research is carried out by three different grids: coarse, medium and fine. Results show that compared with FGC case, the side force coefficients of the head cars for the WWC and LWC cases increases by 14% and 29%, respectively; the coefficients of middle cars for the WWC and LWC increase by 32% and 10%, respectively; and that of the tail car increases by 45% for the WWC whereas decreases by 2% for the LWC case. The most notable thing is that the side force and the rolling moment of the head car are greater for the LWC, while the side force and the rolling moment of the middle car and the tail car are greater for the WWC. Comparing the velocity profiles at different locations, the flow is significantly influenced by the bridge-train system when the air is close to it. For the three cases(WWC, LWC and FGC), the pressure on the windward side of train is mostly positive while that of the leeward side is negative. The discrepancy of train's aerodynamic force is due to the different surface area of positive pressure and negative pressure zone. Many vortices are born on the leeward edge of the roofs. Theses vortices develop downstream, detach and dissipate into the wake region. The eddies develop irregularly, leading to a noticeably turbulent flow at leeward side of train.

Structure realization method for collapse threshold of plastic deformation in train collision condition

To protect passengers,absorb enough kinetic energy and meet the special requirements for trains which are different from the other means of transportation,a method is presented to realize the plastic deformation threshold based on three main aspects of train connection structure,crashworthy vehicle structure,energy-absorbing component.In practical engineering,trains need enough strength and stiffness to transfer longitudinal force under the normal operation condition,and have to produce controllable large plastic deformation to absorb energy shortly under the collision condition.To realize the structural damage threshold of connecting structure in terminal end,two control methods are also proposed which can be divided as the parametric method based on 'extrusion' and 'cutting' theories;the method which can cut the connecting components between coupler-buffer devices and train bodies and separate them away when the damage thresholds of coupler-buffer devices are more than the pre-supposed damage thresholds.The damage thresholds can be realized based on changing the parameters of the number of shearing bolts,material parameters,etc.To realize the collision threshold of energy-absorbing components of trains,a control method is presented based on the ways of setting plastic deformation induced structure,local hole and pre-deformation structure.To realize the threshold of the controllable plastic structure of energy-absorbing vehicles,a control method is proposed for the multi-level longitudinal stiffness of train terminal structures.

Numerical Analysis of Different Nose Shapes on the Train Aerodynamic Performance at a Windbreak Transition under Crosswinds

Based on the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) method, this paper studied the effect of the nose shape on the aerodynamic performance when the high-speed train subjected to a windbreak transition under crosswinds. The windbreak transition generated by the irregular terrain from the flat ground to the cutting. The results showed that with the height of the front window increased from Z ? 2 to Z + 2 (the dimensionless height), the side force coefficient Cy and rolling moment co-efficient Cmx increased by 26% and 27% for the head car, respectively. The flow structures around the lower front window were smoother than that around the higher front window. The flow structures in the higher front window resulted in more considerable positive pressure on the windward side (WWS) and top of the nose region.

Crushing analysis and multiobjective crashworthiness optimization of bitubular polygonal tubes with internal walls

In order to reduce casualties and property losses in a collision accident, thin-walled structure has been extensively used as energy absorber in crashworthiness design of train. With the help of energy absorber, collision kinetic energy can be controllably dissipated by the plastic deformation of structures. A new kind of multi-cell thin-walled structure called as bitubular polygonal tubes with internal walls(BPTIW) was constructed. The crashworthiness characteristics of BPTIWs were investigated by LS-DYNA. It can be found that the BPTIW with 12 sides has the most excellent crashworthiness characteristics. Therefore, based on response surface method(RSM) and multiobjective particle optimization(MOPSO) algorithm, the BPTIW with 12 sides was selected to optimize the dimensions of cross-sectional configuration under different constraints of energy absorption(EA) and crushing peak force(CPF). The results show that the optimal designs of BPTIW12 under different constraints present excellent crashworthiness characteristics and can be used in the practical engineering.

Installation position determination of wind speed sensors on steel pole along a high-speed railway

In order to consider the influence of steel pole on the measurement of wind speed sensors and determinate the installation position of wind speed sensors, the flow field around wind speed sensors was investigated. Based on the three-dimensional steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and k-ε double equations turbulent model, the field flow around the wind speed sensor and the steel pole along a high-speed railway was simulated on an unstructured grid. The grid-independent validation was conducted and the accuracy of the present numerical simulation method was validated by experiments and simulations carried out by previous researchers. Results show that the steel pole has a significant influence on the measurement results of wind speed sensors. As the distance between two wind speed sensors is varied from 0.3 to 1.0 m, the impact angles are less than ±20°, it is proposed that the distance between two wind speed sensors is 0.8 m at least, and the interval between wind speed sensors and the steel pole is more than 1.0 m with the sensors located on the upstream side.

Flow structure around high-speed train in open air

According to the analysis of the turbulent intensity level around the high-speed train, the maximum turbulent intensity ranges from 0.2 to 0.5 which belongs to high turbulent flow. The flow field distribution law was studied and eight types of flow regions were proposed. They are high pressure with air stagnant region, pressure decreasing with air accelerating region, low pressure with high air flow velocity region I, turbulent region, steady flow region, low pressure with high air flow velocity region II,pressure increasing with air decelerating region and wake region. The analysis of the vortex structure around the train shows that the vortex is mainly induced by structures with complex mutation and large curvature change. The head and rear of train, the underbody structure, the carriage connection section and the wake region are the main vortex generating sources while the train body with even cross-section has rare vortexes. The wake structure development law studied lays foundation for the train drag reduction.

A novel finite element model for single-layered wire strand

A new finite element model for single-layered strand was investigated for accurate and efficient mechanical behavior analysis.Mathematical model was created by sectional path-nodes sweeping and dynamic node-beam mapping.Geometric relations between nodes in center core wire and helical wires were deduced in tension and bending incorporating material elasticity theory and deformation geometrical compatibility.Based on Timoshenko beam theory,strand of a pitch length was modeled with specific material,geometric parameters and synthesized constraint equations defined in ANSYS software,and predetermined load cases were performed.The obtained results show that discrepancies between suggested method and Costello theory do not exceed 1.51% in tension and 6.21% in bending,which verifies the correctness and accuracy of the suggested finite element model in predicting mechanical behavior of single-layered wire strand.

Detailed string stability analysis for bi-directional optimal velocity model

The class of bi-directional optimal velocity models can describe the bi-directional looking effect that usually exists in the reality and is even enhanced with the development of the connected vehicle technologies. Its combined string stability condition can be obtained through the method of the ring-road based string stability analysis. However, the partial string stability about traffic fluctuation propagated backward or forward was neglected, which will be analyzed in detail in this work by the method of transfer function and its H∞ norm from the viewpoint of control theory. Then, through comparing the conditions of combined and partial string stabilities, their relationships can make traffic flow be divided into three distinguishable regions, displaying various combined and partial string stability performance. Finally, the numerical experiments verify the theoretical results and find that the final displaying string stability or instability performance results from the accumulated and offset effects of traffic fluctuations propagated from different directions.