Aerodynamics of high-speed railway train

Railway train aerodynamic problems are closely associated with the flows occurring around train. Much effort to speed up the train system has to date been paid on the improvement of electric motor power rather than understanding the flow around the train. This has led to larger energy losses and performance deterioration of the train system, since the flows around train are more disturbed due to turbulence of the increased speed of the train, and consequently the flow energies are converted to aerodynamic drag, noise and vibrations. With the speed-up of train, many engineering problems which have been neglected at low train speeds. are being raised with regard to aerodynamic noise and vibrations, impulse forces occurring as two trains intersect each other, impulse wave at the exit of tunnel, ear discomfort of passengers inside train, etc. These are of major limitation factors to the speed-up of train system. The present review addresses the state of the art on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic problems of high-speed railway train and highlights proper control strategies to alleviate undesirable aerodynamic problems of high-speed railway train system. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.