Effects of Embankment Scenario on the Aerodynamic Coefficients of a Railway Vehicle Through Wind Tunnel Tests

Embankment is a typical layout for rail infrastructures and train aerodynamic coefficients in this scenario are necessary for the analysis of cross wind effects. Nevertheless wind tunnel tests on scale models with the embankment scenario presents difficulties in the reproduction of the boundary conditions, that is the simulation of a “pseudo-infinite” full scale embankment. To investigate this topic we have performed wind tunnel tests on an ETR500 1:45 scale model using a finite length embankment, with and without an upwind nose and a “pseudo-infinite” embankment, reproduced by the extension wall-to-wall of the scenario. The paper presents the tests results in terms of aerodynamic force coefficients and surface pressures. Guidelines for wind tunnel tests on embankment are than discussed.