Aerodynamic impact of wind-sand flow on moving trains in tunnel-embankment transition section: from field testing to CFD modeling

The acceleration of land desertification has led to an increasingly serious threat to the operation safety of tunnel entrance in the Gobi and desert regions by wind-sand flow, and it is urgent to study and enhance the running safety of train. Firstly, an ultrasonic anemometer is used to collect the characteristics of wind-sand flow at a tunnel entrance site in Xinjiang, China. Then, based on the Euler multiphase flow and the SST k-w model, the variation difference law of the train running at the tunnel entrance is revealed under the four inflow conditions of constant crosswind, constant wind-sand flow, pulsating crosswind and pulsating wind-sand flow respectively. Finally, the disturbance law of the solid wind barrier at the tunnel entrance on the wind-sand flow and the influence mechanism on the train’s flow field structure and pressure are revealed. The results show that compared with other cases, the pulsating wind-sand flow has the most significant effect on the moving trains’ aerodynamic loads (ALs), and the sand particles carried in the air cause the trains’ ALs to fluctuate within 9.09%. The solid wind barrier has a significant disturbing effect on the wind-sand flow, and the lightweight sand particles follow the air flow over the top of the wind barrier and are not deposited on the embankment during a short period, and the wind-sand flow’s impact on the HSTs is dramatically reduced. The wind barrier changes the HST’s flow field, and the AL fluctuation of the train is sharply reduced. The maximum values of the head train’s AL coefficients are reduced by 46.53–85.75%.