TY - JOUR
T1 - A field study on the aerodynamics of freight trains
AU - Quazi, Ariq
AU - Crouch, Timothy
AU - Bell, James
AU - McGreevy, Tony
AU - Thompson, Mark C.
AU - Burton, David
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - A novel full-scale field test was undertaken to assess the aerodynamic performance of shipping containers loaded on inter-modal freight trains. The aerodynamic performance of an instrumented 48 ft container, located 185 m downstream of the locomotive, is assessed in the context of surface pressure, weather station, and GPS data sets. Previous studies on the aerodynamics of trains have been largely limited to low-resolution, reduced-order and scaled; field, numerical and wind-tunnel studies; respectively. The objective here was to determine the capacity of this novel field-based method to assess the aerodynamic performance of full-scale train containers for a large range of operating conditions. For low wind conditions, where the yaw angle is predicted to be low, measured surface pressure distributions on the front and base of the container are similar to that of past work however the magnitude of the drag coefficient was much lower, by up to 65%. This suggests that previous studies are yet to fully detail the drag profile of containers located at large downstream distance. Observed asymmetry of the pressure distribution on the front of the container are generally consistent with wind conditions measured at nearby weather stations and can be used as a proxy to determine the wind yaw angle at the train.
AB - A novel full-scale field test was undertaken to assess the aerodynamic performance of shipping containers loaded on inter-modal freight trains. The aerodynamic performance of an instrumented 48 ft container, located 185 m downstream of the locomotive, is assessed in the context of surface pressure, weather station, and GPS data sets. Previous studies on the aerodynamics of trains have been largely limited to low-resolution, reduced-order and scaled; field, numerical and wind-tunnel studies; respectively. The objective here was to determine the capacity of this novel field-based method to assess the aerodynamic performance of full-scale train containers for a large range of operating conditions. For low wind conditions, where the yaw angle is predicted to be low, measured surface pressure distributions on the front and base of the container are similar to that of past work however the magnitude of the drag coefficient was much lower, by up to 65%. This suggests that previous studies are yet to fully detail the drag profile of containers located at large downstream distance. Observed asymmetry of the pressure distribution on the front of the container are generally consistent with wind conditions measured at nearby weather stations and can be used as a proxy to determine the wind yaw angle at the train.
KW - Aerodynamic drag
KW - Bluff bodies
KW - Experimental methods
KW - Field measurement
KW - Train aerodynamics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098464269&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jweia.2020.104463
DO - 10.1016/j.jweia.2020.104463
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098464269
VL - 209
JO - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
JF - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
SN - 0167-6105
M1 - 104463
ER -