Numerical study on the flow field characteristics of the new high-speed maglev train in open air
Peng Zhou, Tian Li, Chunfa Zhao, Jiye Zhang
Abstract
With the increasing demand of higher travelling speed, a new streamlined high-speed maglev train has been designed to reach a speed of 600 km/h. To better capture the flow field structures around the maglev train, an improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) is adopted to model the turbulence. Results show that the new maglev train has good aerodynamic load performance such as small drag coefficient contributing to energy conservation. The main frequencies of aerodynamic forces for each car have a scattered distribution. There are two pairs of counter-rotating large vortices in the non-streamlined part of the train that make the boundary layer thicker. Many high-intensity vortices are distributed in the narrow space between skirt plates or train floor and track. In the gap between the train floor and track (except near the tail car nose), the main frequency of vortex shedding remains constant and its strength increases exponentially in the streamwise direction. In the wake, the counter-rotating vortices gradually expand and reproduce some small vortices that move downward. The vortex has quite random and complex frequencydomain distribution characteristics in the wake. The maximum time-averaged velocity of the slipstream occurs near the nose of the head car, based on which, the track-side safety domain is divided.