Effects of Embankment Scenario on the Aerodynamic Coefficients of a Railway Vehicle Through Wind Tunnel Tests

Author(s):  
F. Cheli ◽  
F. Fiocco ◽  
S. Giappino ◽  
G. Tomasini

Embankment is a typical layout for rail infrastructures and train aerodynamic coefficients in this scenario are necessary for the analysis of cross wind effects. Nevertheless wind tunnel tests on scale models with the embankment scenario presents difficulties in the reproduction of the boundary conditions, that is the simulation of a “pseudo-infinite” full scale embankment. To investigate this topic we have performed wind tunnel tests on an ETR500 1:45 scale model using a finite length embankment, with and without an upwind nose and a “pseudo-infinite” embankment, reproduced by the extension wall-to-wall of the scenario. The paper presents the tests results in terms of aerodynamic force coefficients and surface pressures. Guidelines for wind tunnel tests on embankment are than discussed.

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Dutt

This paper deals with the investigation of wind loading on the pyramidal roof structure of the Church of St Michael in Newton, Wirral, Cheshire, England, by wind tunnel tests on a 1/48 scale model. The roof of the model was flat in the peripheral region of the building while in the inner region there was a grouping of four pyramidal roofs. Wind tunnel experiments were carried out; wind pressure distribution and contours of wind pressure on all surfaces of the pyramid roofs were determined for four principal wind directions. The average suctions on the roof were evaluated. The highest point suction encountered was — 4q whilst the maximum average suction on the roof was —0·86q. The results obtained from wind tunnel tests were used for the design of pyramidal roof structures and roof coverings for which localised high suctions were very significant.


Vehicles ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-341
Author(s):  
Chen Fu ◽  
Mesbah Uddin ◽  
Chunhui Zhang

With the fast-paced growth of computational horsepower and its affordability, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been rapidly evolving as a popular and effective tool for aerodynamic design and analysis in the automotive industry. In the real world, a road vehicle is subject to varying wind and operating conditions that affect its aerodynamic characteristics, and are difficult to reproduce in a traditional wind tunnel. CFD has the potential of becoming a cost-effective way of achieving this, through the application of different boundary conditions. Additionally, one can view wind tunnel testing, be it a fixed-floor or rolling road tunnel, as a physical simulation of actual on-road driving. The use of on-road track testing, and static-floor, and rolling-road wind tunnel measurements are common practices in industry. Subsequently, we investigated the influences of these test conditions and the related boundary conditions on the predictions of the aerodynamic characteristics of the flow field around a vehicle using CFD. A detailed full-scale model of Hyundai Veloster with two vehicle configurations, one with the original and the other with an improved spoiler, were tested using a commercial CFD code STAR-CCM+ from Siemens. Both vehicle configurations were simulated using four different test conditions, providing overall eight different sets of simulation settings. The CFD methodology was validated with experimental data from the Hyundai Aero-acoustic Wind Tunnel (HAWT), by accurately reproducing the test section with static floor boundary conditions. In order to investigate the effect of the blockage ratio on the aerodynamic predictions, the vehicle models were then tested with moving ground plus rotating wheel boundary conditions, using a total of four virtual wind tunnel configurations, with tunnel solid blockage ratios ranging from 1.25%, which corresponds to the actual HAWT, to 0.04%, which presents an open air driving condition.


Author(s):  
Masayuki ANYOJI ◽  
Masato OKAMOTO ◽  
Hidenori HIDAKA ◽  
Taku NONOMURA ◽  
Akira OYAMA ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 186-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. F. Fric ◽  
R. Villarreal ◽  
R. O. Auer ◽  
M. L. James ◽  
D. Ozgur ◽  
...  

Results from scale-model experiments and industrial gas turbine tests show that strut vortex shedding in an annular exhaust diffuser can effectively be modified by adding tapered chord to the struts. The struts are bluff bodies at full-speed, no-load conditions, when inlet swirl is close to 60 deg. Data from wind tunnel tests show that wake Strouhal number is 0.47, larger than that expected for an isolated cylinder wake. This value of Strouhal number agrees with those measured in full-scale exhaust diffusers. Wind tunnel tests showed that a strut with tapered chord most effectively reduced wake amplitudes and shifted shedding frequency. The tapered strut was also effective in reducing shedding amplitude in a scale-model diffuser. Finally, gas turbine tests employing a tapered strut showed significant reductions in unsteady pressure and noise. A major benefit of strut taper is a reduction of noise by uncoupling of vortex shedding from acoustic resonant response.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwan Auburtin ◽  
Jang Kim ◽  
Hyunchul Jang ◽  
Lawrence Lai ◽  
Jason McConochie ◽  
...  

Abstract The Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility is moored with an internal turret allowing it to perform offloading operations of liquefied natural and petroleum gas products. It does so in either a Free Weathervaning (FW) mode, i.e. by allowing the unit to rotate according to environmental loads, or in a Thruster-Assisted (TA) mode, i.e. by using the stern thrusters to maintain a fixed heading deemed preferable for the entire operation, or a particular phase. An accurate estimation of the various environment effects, in terms of forces on the FLNG and LNG carrier, is critical to ensure a correct prediction of its heading or the required thruster forces, depending on the selected operating mode. The predominant loads driving the weathervaning behavior are wind and current loads. These loads have been estimated from wind tunnel tests during the engineering phase. Since the Prelude FLNG has been installed on-site, field measurements have provided an opportunity for comparison and shown some differences with the numerical predictions based on the estimated loads, prompting a need for verification of current loads by an independent method. For the Prelude FLNG application, current loads play an important role due to facility size and significant tidal currents. It has been shown in some previous studies that wind tunnel tests for a model of under-water geometry may underestimate current loads compared to those on a full-scale vessel. There is a boundary layer along the wind tunnel floor in wind tunnel tests, while the current profile is relatively uniform over the hull draft in the real ocean condition. Moreover experimental tests present some additional drawbacks: they are performed at a reduced scale (1:225), the Reynolds number is lower than full-scale even with a large wind tunnel speed, and it is difficult to model the long (150m full-scale) Water Intake Risers (WIR) extending below the hull bottom. In order to investigate these effects, state-of-the-art full-scale CFD simulations were performed for the Prelude hull and WIR. The test program included different current speeds and directions, and several sensitivity studies: Reynolds number effect between model- and full-scales, effect of current speed profile (comparing uniform and boundary layer profiles at model scale), effect of FLNG rotation in yaw, impact of unsteady current, and presence of marine growth. Extreme dimensions of Prelude FLNG and requirements for accuracy of this study called for the CFD calculations to be performed on the High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters - Stampede2 and Frontera - at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), which are both amongst the world’s largest supercomputers. This paper describes the assumptions and challenges of the CFD study and discusses the results of the main program and various sensitivities. The main conclusions and lessons learnt are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Xiaoguang Wang ◽  
Miaojiao Peng ◽  
Zhenghong Hu ◽  
Yueshi Chen ◽  
Qi Lin

Cable-driven parallel robot is a special kind of robot, which is actuated by cables. It is already applied in the low speed wind tunnel to get aerodynamic measurement of aircraft model, and the aircraft pose could be adjusted by changing the cable length. Whether it can be used in hypersonic wind tunnel still needs further discussion. This paper presents the dynamics and aerodynamics analysis of a large-scale model supported by 6-DOF cable-driven parallel robot to investigate the feasibility of this special kind of suspension system in hypersonic wind tunnel. The description of this setup with a X-51A-like model is given, and then based on the system dynamic equations, aerodynamic force and stiffness matrix are derived. In the simulation, properties of dynamics and aerodynamics are mainly concerned. A typical shock tunnel with flow duration of about 100 milliseconds is taken as an example, and results show that the system is stable enough to meet the fundamental static wind tunnel test. From the cable tension variation under impact load and the sensitivity analysis, it is likely accessible to derive the aerodynamic forces. Compared with the sting suspension method, cable-driven parallel robot has the priority of higher inherent frequency and more flexible degrees. The interference to the flow field induced by cables is also preliminarily proved to be small by the CFD simulation, which can be acceptable and corrected. Researches conducted show the feasibility of cable-driven parallel robot’s application in hypersonic wind tunnel.


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