Aerodynamic Brake Study of Reducing Braking Distance and Decreasing Using The Energy of Braking of High-Speed Trains

Abstract

This article presents a novel research on aerodynamic brake by reducing brake distance and braking energy of the high-speed trains (HST), which is inspirational from the aerodynamic brake on a commercial aircraft’s wings. In emergency case, both brake distance and braking time of HST will be longer than normal situation, therefore, safety for passengers and management about controlling the driving of HST are very important. The aerodynamic brake effected on the dynamic motion of trains during braking are analyzed and considered as the aircraft’s flaps that is applied in HST. The area of aerodynamic brake functions as the additional drag force during braking. The HST with the speed from 200 km/h to 350 km/h is a case study of this article. As the results, it is found that the braking time and brake distance can be reduced in comparison with the system without aerodynamic brake. The braking distance is reduced by 394 m or 0.13% when the area of aerodynamic brake increases to 100%. However, when aerodynamic brake is used in real situation, it should be chosen the area of aerodynamic brake that is suitable to the dimension of train body, and it should not block electricity cable, energy resource in the train, tunnel and so on. Moreover, it can reduce the energy of braking, and energy saving is reduced by 3.23 kWh or 0.692%, therefore, the mechanical brake and its maintenance have efficient advantages by extending its service life.