J. Mod. Transport.

(2017) 25(1):34–39
DOI 10.1007/s40534-017-0125-y

Influence of pantograph fixing position on aerodynamic

characteristics of high-speed trains
Liang Zhang1 • Jiye Zhang1 • Tian Li1 • Weihua Zhang1

Received: 28 September 2016 / Revised: 19 January 2017 / Accepted: 19 January 2017 / Published online: 28 February 2017
Ó The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract To study the influence of the pantograph fixing 1 Introduction

position on aerodynamic characteristics of high-speed
trains, the aerodynamic models of high-speed trains with With the increase in the train speed, the interaction
eight cars were established based on the theory of com- between the train and the air becomes more severe, and it
putational fluid dynamics, and eight cases with pantographs leads to a series of aerodynamic problems, such as aero-
fixed on different positions and in different operational dynamic drag force, lift force, aerodynamic noise [1]. The
orientations were considered. The pantographs were fixed aerodynamic drag force is proportional to the square of the
on the front or the rear end of the first middle car or fixed train speed. When the train speed reaches 200–300 km/h,
on the front or the rear end of the last middle car. The the aerodynamic drag accounts for 70% to 85% of the total
external flow fields of the high-speed trains were numeri- drag of the train [1, 2]. The aerodynamic drag of pan-
cally simulated using the software STAR-CCM?. The tographs accounts for 8% to 14% of the total aerodynamic
results show that the pantograph fixing position has little drag, and the aerodynamic lift of pantographs is propor-
effect on the aerodynamic drag force of the head car and tional to the square of the train speed [3]. Thus, the increase
has a large effect on the aerodynamic drag force of the tail in the train speed would lead to a stronger interaction of
car. The influences of the pantograph fixing position on the pantograph–catenary [4, 5].
aerodynamic lift forces of the head car, tail car and pan- A great deal of research has been carried out to inves-
tographs are obvious. Among the eight cases, considering tigate the aerodynamic characteristics of pantographs of
the total aerodynamic drag force of the train and the high-speed trains. Zhang et al. [6] studied the influence of
aerodynamic lift force of the lifted pantograph, when the the fairing and windshield on the aerodynamic drag of
pantographs are fixed on the rear end of the last middle car pantographs through wind tunnel tests. Guo et al. [7]
and the lifted pantograph is in the knuckle-upstream ori- studied the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of pan-
entation, the aerodynamic performance of the high-speed tographs of high-speed trains with and without crosswind
train is the best. conditions using the detached eddy simulation method. Li
et al. [8] analyzed the aerodynamic forces of pantographs
Keywords High-speed train  Pantograph  with knuckle-downstream and knuckle-upstream orienta-
Fixing position  Aerodynamic characteristics  tion through a numerical simulation based on the three-
Computational fluid dynamics dimensional (3D) steady Reynolds Average Navier–Stokes
(RANS) method, and the simulation results were basically
consistent with the experimental results. Fu et al. [9]
studied the aerodynamic forces of pantographs and the
vibration characteristics induced by winds through wind
& Liang Zhang tunnel tests. Pombo et al. [10] analyzed the influence of the
[email protected]
aerodynamic forces on the pantograph–catenary system for
1
State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong high-speed trains under crosswinds using numerical simu-
University, Chengdu 610031, China lations and experiments. Lee et al. [11] performed wind

123
Influence of pantograph fixing position on aerodynamic characteristics of high-speed trains 35

tunnel tests of pantographs with different arms and opti- aerodynamic characteristics of the high-speed train and
mized the panhead shape. Du et al. [12] numerically cal- pantographs are analyzed.
culated the flow field around a pantograph and analyzed the
aeroacoustic characteristics of the pantograph.
However, the research about the aerodynamic charac- 2 Computational model
teristics of pantographs in the above literature mainly
focused on the pantograph itself and neglected the influ- 2.1 Geometric model
ence of the train body on the aerodynamic characteristics of
pantographs. As the thickness of the boundary layer Based on a new-type high-speed train, a train model with
increases along the opposite running direction of the train, eight cars (including a head car, six middle cars and a tail
the pantograph fixing position would have significant car) is established. The total length of the train is 200 m.
influences on the aerodynamic characteristics of the pan- Figure 1 shows a simplified model of the head car and the
tographs and the train body [13]. In the present paper, whole train. The CX-PG pantograph is used for this study,
aerodynamic models of high-speed trains with pantographs which is a widely used pantograph in China Railway High-
fixed on different positions are established based on the Speed 380. The main components of the pantograph are
theory of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The reserved, and the cables and bolts are ignored. There are
external flow fields of the high-speed trains are numerically two pantographs in each position: One is lifted, and the
simulated using the software STAR-CCM?. In addition, other is folded. The model of the pantograph and the
influences of the pantograph fixing position on the pantograph region is shown in Fig. 2.

2.2 Computational domain and grids

(a) Figure 3 illustrates the computational domain of the flow

field. The inlet of the computational domain extends 200 m
ahead of the head nose, and the outlet is at a distance of
400 m from the tail nose. The height and width of the com-
putational domain are 40 and 80 m, respectively. The
clearance between the bottom of train and the ground is
0.376 m. The computational grids are built using the soft-
ware STAR-CCM ? , which consist of trimmed hexahedral
elements, with 6 prismatic cell layers around the train
(growth rate of 1.2). The thickness of the prismatic cell layer
(b) adjacent to the train wall is 0.5 mm. Three refinement zones
Head car Middle car 2 Middle car 4 Middle car 6 Tail car are defined around the train body and the pantographs. The
minimum and maximum of the surface mesh size of pan-
Middle car 1 Middle car 3 Middle car 5 tographs are 2 and 20 mm, respectively. The minimum and
maximum of the surface mesh size of the train body are 20
Fig. 1 Model of the head car (a) and the whole train (b) and 80 mm, respectively. The maximum volume mesh size

(a) Sliding plate (b)

Upper arm
Guiding rod
Joint

Panhead

Lower arm

Coupling rod

Underbody

Fig. 2 Model of the pantograph (a) and the pantograph region (b)

J. Mod. Transport. (2017) 25(1):34–39 123

36 L. Zhang et al.

of the computational domain is 2000 mm. The volume mesh are simulated using 3D steady incompressible RANS
sizes of the refinement zones around the train body and the equations. The Roe’s FDS scheme and the lower–upper
pantographs are 60 and 20 mm, respectively. Same mesh symmetric Gauss–Seidel (LU-SGS) method are selected
layouts are used for the train models with pantographs fixed for convective flux and temporal discretization, respec-
on different positions. The amounts of computational grids in tively. The k-x SST (shear stress transport) model is
various cases are about 32.57–33.06 million. Partial grids of adopted as the turbulent model. The standard wall func-
the train model are presented in Fig. 4. tions are used near the wall to ensure the accuracy of the
CFD results with a limited amount of mesh. The gov-
3 Numerical method and boundary conditions erning equation of the incompressible flow can be
expressed as follows [14]:
In this work, the train running speed is 97.22 m/s divðquuÞ ¼ divðCgraduÞ þ S; ð1Þ
(350 km/h), and the Mach number is 0.286, which is
lower than 0.3. Therefore, the air compressibility can be where q is the air density, u is the velocity vector, u is the
ignored. The external flow fields around high-speed trains flow flux, U is the diffusion coefficient, and S is the source
item.
The boundary conditions of the computational domain
are described below. The inlet is set as a velocity inlet
boundary and the velocity magnitude is equal to the train
running speed. The outlet is set as a pressure-outlet
boundary and the gauge pressure on the outlet is 0 Pa. The
top and two sides of the domain are set as symmetry
boundaries. The train body and pantographs are non-slip
Fig. 3 Computational domain wall boundaries. In order to simulate the ground effect, the

Fig. 4 Presentation of partial grids. a Surface mesh of streamlined head. b Surface mesh around pantograph region. c Longitudinal symmetry
section mesh around train. d Closer view of symmetry section mesh around pantographs

123 J. Mod. Transport. (2017) 25(1):34–39

Influence of pantograph fixing position on aerodynamic characteristics of high-speed trains 37

Case 1 Case 2

Middle car 1 Middle car 1

Case 3 Case 4

Middle car 1 Middle car 1

Case 5 Case 6

Middle car 6 Middle car 6

Case 7 Case 8

Middle car 6 Middle car 6

Fig. 5 Schematic diagram of the pantograph configurations

Fig. 6 Operational orientations of the pantographs. a Knuckle-downstream orientation. b Knuckle-upstream orientation

33000 Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 4 Results and discussion

Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8

32000 Figure 7 shows the comparison of the aerodynamic drag

Drag force (N)

forces of high-speed trains in various cases, where the drag

31000
force of pantographs is the sum of the drag forces of the lifted
30000 pantograph and folded pantograph. It can be seen that the
9000 pantograph fixing position has little effect on the drag force
6000 of the head car, but has a large effect on the drag force of the
tail car. The aerodynamic drag forces of the pantographs
3000
fixed on the last middle car are evidently smaller than those
0 fixed on the first middle car. The main reason is that the
Head car Tail car Pantographs Total
thickness of the boundary layer around the last middle car is
Fig. 7 Comparison of the drag forces in various cases much larger than that around the first middle car, and the
pantographs fixed on the last middle car are almost sub-
merged in the boundary layer. Among the eight cases, the
ground is set as a slip wall moving with the same speed as total aerodynamic drag force of the high-speed train in case 8
the inlet flow. is the smallest and in case 4 is the largest.
Four pantograph fixing positions are studied in this Figure 8 shows the velocity contour around the pan-
work: the front or the rear end of the first middle car and tographs in case 4 and case 8. It can be seen that the
the front or the rear end of the last middle car. The sche- velocity of the air flow around the pantographs in case 4 is
matic diagram of the pantograph configuration in each case larger than that in case 8. As a result, the aerodynamic drag
is presented in Fig. 5. Two operational orientations of the force of the pantographs in case 4 is larger than that in case
lifted pantograph are considered in each position: the 8.
knuckle-downstream orientation and the knuckle-upstream The comparison of the aerodynamic lift forces of high-
orientation, as shown in Fig. 6. speed trains in various cases is shown in Fig. 9. It can be

J. Mod. Transport. (2017) 25(1):34–39 123

38 L. Zhang et al.

Fig. 8 Velocity contour around pantographs in case 4 (a) and case 8 (b)

(a) Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 (b) 500 Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
8000
Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8

6000 400
Lift force (N)

Lift force (N)

4000
300
2000
200
0

-2000 100

-4000
0
Head car Tail car Folded pantograph Lifted pantograph

Fig. 9 Comparison of the lift forces in various cases. a Head car and tail car. b Pantographs

seen that the pantograph fixing position has a large effect sliding plate of the lifted pantograph contacts with the
on the aerodynamic lift forces of the head car and tail car. catenary directly, it is more reasonable to analyze the lift
The absolute values of the aerodynamic lift forces of the force of the sliding plate when considering the interaction
head car in case 1 and case 2 are evidently smaller than between pantograph and catenary. Figure 10 shows the
those in other cases, while the aerodynamic lift forces of aerodynamic lift forces acting on the sliding plates of the
the tail car in case 7 and case 8 are evidently larger than
those in other cases. The effects of the fixing position of
pantographs on the aerodynamic lift forces of pantographs Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4
60 Case 5 Case 6 Case 7 Case 8
are obvious. The aerodynamic lift forces of the lifted
pantographs fixed on the last middle car are smaller than 50
those fixed on the first middle car, and the aerodynamic lift
Lift force (N)

force of the lifted pantograph in case 8 is the minimum. 40

The aerodynamic lift force of the lifted pantograph
30
directly influences the contact force between pantograph
and catenary, and the contact state of the pantograph– 20
catenary system has a significant effect on the power-
collecting capability of the pantograph. A too large con- 10
tact force would lead to an abrasion increase in the
pantograph and catenary. In contrast, a too small contact 0
Sliding plate
force would lead to an increase in the contact resistance
between pantograph and catenary, resulting in heat gen- Fig. 10 Aerodynamic lift forces of the sliding plates of the lifted
eration, pantograph off-line, arc discharge, etc. As the pantographs in various cases

123 J. Mod. Transport. (2017) 25(1):34–39

Influence of pantograph fixing position on aerodynamic characteristics of high-speed trains 39

lifted pantographs in various cases. It can be seen that the Acknowledgements This work was supported by the High-Speed
pantograph fixing position has a considerable influence on Railway Basic Research Fund Key Project of China (Grant No.
U1234208) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China
the lift force of sliding plates. The lift force of the sliding (Grant Nos. 51475394 and 51605397).
plate of the lifted pantograph in case 1 is the maximum
and in case 4 is the minimum. However, the total aero- Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the
dynamic drag force of the train in case 4 is the maximum Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted
(Fig. 7). The lift forces of the sliding plates of the lifted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give
pantographs fixed on the last middle car (i.e., cases 5–8) appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a
are relatively small, and their differences between each link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were
other are within 15 N. made.
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that con-
sidering the total aerodynamic drag force of the train and
the aerodynamic lift force of the lifted pantograph, when
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