Abstract
Theoretical study has been conducted to clarify pressure characteristics of KTX (Korea Train eXpress) in tunnel. The severe pressure change in tunnel may give rise to the ear-discomfort for passenger and fatigue for car body. Critical tunnel lengths which are induced by x-t diagram analysis can be applied to the experimental results measured by using the running test with atmospheric pressure sensors and portable data acquisition system in previous study. In this study, the tunnels from 200m to 4000m in length have been chosen for the investigation of tunnel length effects. We found that there are similar patterns of external pressure change for each critical tunnel length. The critical tunnel lengths are governed by train speed, train length and sonic velocity. And, the patterns of pressure wave in tunnel are classified into eight groups.