Experimental Study for the Speed-up of a Super-speed Train Model in the Partial Vacuum Tunnel

아진공 터널에서 초고속 열차의 속도향상에 관한 실험적 연구

We are developing an innovative super-speed land transportation system running in a partial vacuum in tunnels with small inside diameter to reduce the aerodynamic drag forces. This paper presents the experimental results obtained on a small scale model when a super-speed train model passing through a tunnel with small inside diameter and a partial vacuum to reduce the aerodynamic drag forces. The experiments were performed on a 1/52-scale moving model rig in which a train model with a diameter of 58 mm and a length of 603 mm was accelerated in a launching tube with 12.27 m length by means of the compressed air launcher and then passed through a tunnel model with 17.149 m length. The partial vacuum was maintained in the tunnel in order to reduce the energy consumption of the propulsion system of the super-speed tube train at super-speed of 700 km/h. In this study, the blockage ratio of train to tunnel model is 0.336. Experimental results show the nonlinear effects of the vacuum on the speed-up of the train model in the tunnel model under the partial vacuum up to 0.21 atm and at the velocity up to 684 km/h. This paper is first study for experiments on the speed-up of a super-speed train model in the partial vacuum tunnels.