Analyze of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro

railcar
Sorin ARSENE*,1, Ioan SEBESAN1
*Corresponding author
POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, Transport Faculty
Depart Rolling Stock Railway,
Splaiul Independentei no. 313, Sector 6, Code 060042, Bucharest, Romania
sorinarsene@gmail.com*, ioan_sebesan@yahoo.com
1

DOI: 10.13111/2066-8201.2016.8.2.2
Received: 30 April 2016 / Accepted: 24 May 2016
Copyright2016. Published by INCAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

4th International Workshop on Numerical Modelling in Aerospace Sciences, NMAS 2016,

11-12 May 2016, Bucharest, Romania, (held at INCAS, B-dul Iuliu Maniu 220, sector 6)
Section 2 Flight dynamics simulation
Abstract: This paper aims to examine the influence of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens
Desiro railcar, and the percentage of these forces in the total values of resistance to motion. In this
regard the numerical simulation of the airflow is used as a method of analysis. We started from the
3D geometric model at a scale of 1:1 of the vehicle bodywork constructive form. The air flow
simulation is performed taking into account the speed limits of the vehicle namely 0 km/ h and 140 km/
h, interval in which eight point values are chosen.
Key Words: aerodynamic forces, numerical simulation, air flow, railway vehicles, railcar, bodywork

1. INTRODUCTION
The two forces acting on engines railway vehicles in motion are on the one hand the traction
force generated by the motors axles and the sum of the resistance forces opposing to the
movement in the desired direction on the other hand. The values of these forces
(corresponding to the moving speed of the vehicle) must to be smaller or equal to the limit of
adherence of the wheel- rail contact. Consequently, the mathematical relationship which
describes the movement of a motor rail vehicle between two points on a track sector (in
traction regime) can be written in accordance with [1-6] as follows:
F0v Rt v Fa v

(1)

where: F0v tractive force, Rt v total resistance to motion and Fa v limit of adherence force
of the wheel -rail contact.
The resistance forces acting on a vehicle during its movement in terms of alignment
(straight line without level deviation in the vertical direction) depend on multiple frictions,
such as: those in the axles bearings, rolling and/ or sliding friction between wheel and the
road surface, air friction, friction between the current collector (pantograph, patina) and the
contact line and so on. Because of the very large variety of parameters which intervene in the
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calculation of resistance forces, they are determined based on empirical calculation formulas
obtained experimentally.
The generalized mathematical formula in the specialty literature [1-7] for the resistance
to motion of a rail vehicle is known as the relationship of W. J. Davis. This takes the form of
a quadratic polynomial function (2).
R t = A + B v + C v2

(2)

where: R t is the total resistance to motion, A the mechanical rolling resistance N , B the
coefficient of non-aerodynamic resistance to motion N km h , C the coefficient of the
aerodynamic resistance to motion N km h 2 and v the speed of vehicle km h .
In the case of Siemens Desiro railcar, Davis coefficients values are presented in Table 1.
Table 1 The coefficients values of resistance to motion in case of Siemens Desiro railcar

Tip vehicle
A [N]
B [N/(km/h)]
C [N/(km/h)2]
Siemens Desiro railcar (80 t)
1700.1
11.8
0.4
The distribution of components of resistance to motion in case of Siemens Desiro
railcar, according to Davis relationship, is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows the percentage of
these components to the total resistance value.

Fig. 1 The characteristic and components of resistance to motion in alignment and plane of Siemens Desiro
railcar
RA_SD mechanical rolling resistance; RB_SD non-aerodynamic resistance; RC_SD aerodynamic resistance

Fig. 2 The percentage of resistance components in the total value

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Analyze of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro railcar

For speeds up to 250 km/ h, parameter C (regarding the aerodynamic resistances in

Davis relation) is explained in the literature [7-17] according to the forces generated by the
air flow in the Cartesian coordinate system, under the following form:
Ci

2 Fi
Si v 2

(3)

where: i axis of the Cartesian coordinate system (Ox, Oy, Oz); S cross-sectional area of
the vehicle(m2); the air density through which the vehicle moves (kg/m3);
Determination of the aerodynamic resistance to motion forces can be achieved
experimentally by testing scale models in wind tunnels or using specialized programs for air
flow simulation.

2. SIMULATION OF THE AIR FLOW

In order to analyze the distribution of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro
railcar an airflow simulation software program was used. To this end we have geometrically
3D modeled the constructive form of the SIMENS Desiro SR 20 railcar bodywork at a scale
of 1: 1 (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 3D geometric model of the Siemens Desiro railcar (sizes in mm)

For the air flow simulation we analyzed eight punctual situations about the vehicle
speed in the range of 0 km/ h - 150 km/ h using the SolidWorks Flow Simulation. In these
eight cases the railcar moves at a constant speed (5m/ s, 10m/ s, 15m/ s, 20m/ s, 25m/ s,
30m/ s, 35m/ s and 40m/ s, respectively), on a profile located into alignment plane and under
normal atmospheric conditions. As input parameters regarding the atmospheric conditions
we considered the values: 101325 Pa for pressure and 293.2 K for temperature.
In the air flow simulation a defined volume was considered, as shown in Fig. 4, namely:
- vertically, a plane corresponding to the upper surface of the rolling track embankment
and another plane located at 15 m from the first one were considered;
- for the cross-section: two planes symmetrically located at 10 m from the longitudinal
plane of the vehicle were considered;
- for the longitudinal section: two planes located at 30m and 35m, respectively, from
the transverse plane of the vehicle were considered.
In the longitudinal section of the air flow, the plane situated at 30 m corresponds to the
front of the railcar and the second plane (at 35m) corresponds to the back of the vehicle.
The obtained air volume is discretized into about 65,000 parallelipipedic elements, and
the surface of the vehicle is divided into about 2,000 rectangular elements.
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After the simulations (for the eight cases analyzed in terms of air flow speed) the
dynamic pressure of the air (Fig. 5), the pressure on the railcar (Fig. 6), the total pressure of
the air (Fig. 7) and the exerted forces were obtained.

15m
35m

10m

10m

30m

Fig. 4 Delimited volume for the air flow

a. 5 m/s

b. 10 m/s

c. 15 m/s

d. 20 m/s

e. 25 m/s

f. 30 m/s

g. 35 m/s

h. 40 m/s

Fig. 5 Contour lines for the dynamic pressure of the air in the median plane of the longitudinal section
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Analyze of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro railcar

a. 5 m/s

b. 10 m/s

c. 15 m/s

d. 20 m/s

e. 25 m/s

f. 30 m/s

g. 35 m/s

h. 40 m/s

Fig. 6 Variation of the air pressure exerted on the railcar

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a. 5 m/s

b. 10 m/s

c. 15 m/s

d. 20 m/s

e. 25 m/s

f. 30 m/s

g. 35 m/s

h. 40 m/s

Fig. 7 The flow lines for the total pressure of the air surrounding the railcar
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Analyze of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro railcar

Samples of the evolution of the aerodynamic forces (on the Ox, Oy and Oz axes)
resulted during the simulation of the air flow near the Siemens Desiro railcar (in for the eight
analyzed speed values) are shown in Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10.

Fig. 8 Sample of the aerodynamic forces variation on the longitudinal direction of the railcar result from
simulation

Fig. 9 Sample of the aerodynamic forces variation on the vertical direction of the railcar resulted from
simulation

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Fig. 10 Sample of the aerodynamic forces variation on the transversal direction of the railcar resulted from
simulation

The aerodynamic forces stabilized values resulted from the simulations performed on
Siemens Desiro railcar are shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Stabilized values of the aerodynamic forces resulting from simulation

v[m/s]
Fx [N]
Fy [N]
Fz [N]

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

139,20
5,79
45,49

553,78
22,74
388,29

851,12
53,66
69,94

1413,91
95,08
23,97

2262,89
140,91
419,86

3101,68
205,86
43,04

3977,84
287,25
355,06

5069,37
372,25
327,20

To determine the percentage of the stabilized aerodynamic force on the longitudinal

direction into the total resistance force and into the aerodynamic resistance corresponding to
Davis formula, we superimposed these characteristics (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11 Comparison of the resistance aerodynamic forces resulting from simulation

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Analyze of aerodynamic forces acting on the Siemens Desiro railcar

By reporting the characteristics obtained from simulation to the values mentioned above
(total resistance and aerodynamic resistance to motion) the correctness of simulation and the
percentage of these aerodynamic forces (on a specific direction) in the value of total
resistance (Fig. 12) can be evaluated.

Fig. 12 Reporting of the aerodynamic forces characteristics obtained simulation

3. CONCLUSION
An increase in the railcar speed automatically determines an increase in the total resistance
to motion, as can be seen in Fig. 1. The aerodynamic forces are particularly important in
terms of the total resistance to motion(Fig. 1).This aspect is especially illustrated in particular
in fig. 2 showing a rapid analysis of the percentage of the resistance forces from Davis
formula.
The airflow simulations showed that the air pressure variation (Fig. 5 and Fig. 7), is
implicitly exerted on the railcar surface (Fig. 6). In consequence the aerodynamic forces vary
until the simulation stabilizes (Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10).
From the simulation it resulted that the aerodynamic forces acting on the vehicle on the
longitudinal direction (Fx) are the most significant (see table 2).
Comparing the aerodynamic forces resulted from simulation with those obtained from
Davis relationship differences at higher values of analyzed velocities can be noticed (Fig. 11
and Fig. 12). A cause of these differences is the way in which the discretization of the
airflow volume is made (in this case the volume elements have a large meshing).
Longitudinal aerodynamic forces (resulting from the air flow simulation) represent a
percentage up to about 46% from the total resistance to motion of the vehicle.

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