Comparisons of shear stress transport and detached eddy simulations of the flow around trains

Shear stress transport (SST) k-ω model and detached eddy simulation (DES) have been widely applied in crosswind stability simulations for trains in the literature. In the previous research, the influence of the SST and DES approaches on the flow field around trains, which affects the surface pressure and consequently the aerodynamic forces of the train, was not properly investigated in terms of their influence flow field. The SST and improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) turbulence models have been tested in this study for their ability to predict the flow field around, surface pressure, and aerodynamic forces on a 1/25th scale Class 390 train subjected to crosswinds. Numerical simulation results were validated with experimental data. Results show that both SST and IDDES predict similar trends in the mean flow field around the train. However, there were some slight differences observed in the size of vortices, the position of separation points, and consequently, the separation and attachment lines. The SST results compared more closely to the experimental data than IDDES for pressure coefficient on the leeward surface and roof at certain loops. Slight differences were observed in force coefficients for SST and DES. The side force coefficients calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) sit within the experimental uncertainty, whereas the lift force coefficients deviated greatly due to the omission of some underbody geometrical features. Both SST and IDDES approaches used the linear-upwind stabilized transport (LUST) scheme and were able to predict accurately the time-averaged surface pressure within the margin of the experimental uncertainty.