Impact of rotation of wheels and bogie cavity shapes on snow accumulating on the bogies of high-speed trains

Journal article, 2019

The snow accumulation on the bogies of a high-speed train was studied using the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations (URANS) coupled with the Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The effects of the rotation of wheels, shape of bogie fairings and length of bogie cavities on the flow characteristics and snow accumulation around bogie regions are discussed. The results show that the rotation of wheels significantly affects the flow characteristic and snow distribution around rear plates and the snow accumulation on the top surface of bogies. The shape of bogie fairings has been found to have large influence on the velocity profiles at the inlet and the outlet of bogie cavity, and thereby on the snow accumulation. The bogies without fairing have been found to be less influenced by the snow in the flows without crosswinds. The length of the bogie's cavity was found to have dominant role on the distribution of particle concentration and snow accumulation on the bogie surface. The total mass of snow accumulation on the bogie surface was shown to decrease with the shorter bogie cavity. Finally, the shorter bogie cavity is recommended for the design of the high-speed trains running under the circumstances permitted by the vehicle gauge.