Research on the impact of air-blowing on aerodynamic drag reduction and wake characteristics of a high-speed maglev train

Abstract

The maglev train fills the speed gap between ground transportation and airplanes. However, the increasing train speed results in greater energy losses due to increased aerodynamic drag, impeding the green and sustainable development of high-speed railways. This study employs the numerical simulation method to explore the effects of installing air-blowing slots on the surface of the TR08 maglev train’s tail car and blowing air along three different directions at two different speeds on drag reduction and the characteristics of the wake flow field. Among them, only blowing air along the streamwise direction at speeds of 12m/s (X12) and 24m/s (X24) shows drag reduction effects of 2.06% and 6.53%, respectively. However, considering the energy efficiency, only X12 achieves a net energy saving of 58.96%, while the energy consumption by blowing air and saving by reducing drag in X24 are roughly balanced. Air-blowing reduces the aerodynamic lift of the tail car (Cl), with blowing air along the perpendicular direction at 24m/s (Z24) reducing the Cl by 99.57%. Additionally, Z24 reduces the maximum velocity value of the train-induced air flow (Usmax) by 61.91%. The research findings provide new insight and data support for the development of blowing/suction drag reduction techniques.