COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF AERODYNAMIC SHAPE OF HIGH SPEED TRAINS

Abstract

Development of high speed trains and increasing operational speeds of conventional passenger and freight rolling stock have resulted in growing interest in railways aerodynamics. Environmental issues, comfort demands and reduction of energy consumption are the key ishues to which aerodynamic improvements can largely contribute. This dissertation presents a study of the aerodynamic behavior of existing fastest electric locomotive of Indian Railways (WAP-5) on its scaled model at different speeds in an open circuit, Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. This locomotive model has also been numerically simulated by CFD software FLUENT. For the speed up to 220 km/hr, the aerodynamic shape has been optimized by considering five design parameters. Optimization is done by Taguchi method using QUALITEK-4 software. The optimized shape is again simulated numerically and the numerical results are validated by wind tunnel tests