Aerodynamic pressure on a wall due to movement of a high-speed train

Abstract

The questions of train aerodynamics have taken on great practical importance in connection with the rapid increase of the speeds of the modern trains. In particular, of very great importance is the aerodynamic effect of trains on people and structures located near the tracks.

The present article makes an attempt to evaluate the pressure of a train on a long wall parallel to a moving train.

Similar problems have been considered for circular cylinders and for spheres. Literature on the subject and the initial discussion of the question may be found in the classical hydrodynamics courses [1,2]. A more exact solution of the problem of the motion of a circular cylinder in the presence of a wall has been given by Mazur [3]. The problems of the motion of an ellipsoid and certain other bodies have been examined recently to determine the suction force acting on a ship [4–6] In these studies bodies were considered whose slenderness ratio is much less than that of trains. Particular note should be taken of the article of Blokh and Ginevskii [5] which gives an approximate method which may be used also for very elongated bodies, if account is taken of the transverse velocities which they generate.

The methods of thin wing theory are used in the present study.