Numerical simulation on the temperature field in an equipment cabin of a high-speed railway train

Abstract

With train speed increasing, the heat generation from its key equipment is growing as well and the cooling and ventilation of the equipment cabin become more and more important. In this paper, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is adopted to simulate the airflow and the temperature field in indoor and outdoor space of the equipment cabin when the train moves at 250 km/h in open space. The simulation results indicate that the surface temperature of the main heat generation equipment is not beyond the limit. When the train moves forward and backward, the maximum average surface temperature of the heat generation equipment is 56.5 °C and 71.7 °C, respectively, and the airflow rates of the fans in the equipment cabin are decreased by 9.1% and 5.2%, if compared to the rated value, respectively. Both forward and backward running conditions should be considered when designing the layout of the equipment and grilles. It is suggested that, the major heat generation equipment should be located in the middle of the cabin; the flow rate decrement of the cooling fan when the train moves at 250 km/h should be taken into account.