Development of Aerodynamic Brake Device for High-speed Railway

Abstract

To shorten stopping distances of high-speed trains in case of emergency braking, the author of this paper developed a small, light-weight aerodynamic braking device. To examine its aerodynamic characteristics, a full-scale prototype was tested in a wind tunnel facility at a maximum flow speed of 400 km/h. Tests confirmed that the response time for deployment of the device was only 0.39 s, and that the prototype was able to produce an aerodynamic drag force of 2.3 kN per unit. In addition, performance was calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The result of the CFD analysis around a train roof with a large number of devices showed that the staggered arrangement of the devices could increase the total drag force by 10 percent compared to the standard parallel arrangement.