Title: Influence of various factors on the air pressure pulse from passing trains

Authors: Hongqi Tian, Hua He

Addresses: Research Center for High Speed Trains, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410075, P. R. China. ' Research Center for High Speed Trains, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410075, P. R. China

Abstract: The air pressure pulse from trains passing by each other is an aerodynamic problem that only appears in the high-speed rail transportation. The air pressure pulse can seriously affect the safety of high-speed rail transport, passenger comfort, and the cost of building and maintaining railway lines. In this paper, the relations between the air pressure pulse, train speed, track interval, width of the car-body, boundary layer and train configuration are studied. The studies are based on the results of numerical computations, full-scale tests and wind tunnel tests of the air pressure pulse of two trains passing by each other. The tests involved an accelerating train, a train travelling at 200 km/h train and a train travelling above 200 km/h. The results show that the air pressure pulse reduces with the square of the raised value of train velocity, and rises with the square of the raised value of the train passing by, while it has a negative index relation with the track interval. Based on the above results, a series of theory relation equations is presented.

Keywords: air pressure pulses; motion dynamics; track interval; train aerodynamics; train configuration; passing trains; high speed rail; train speed; car-body width; boundary layer; train velocity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2005.005669

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2005 Vol.12 No.1, pp.60 - 68

Published online: 15 Nov 2004 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article