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High speed train

Download geometry file

Download BaramMesh folder

Introduction


High-speed trains travel in the subsonic compressible flow regime with Mach numbers in the range of 0.3 to 0.4. In CFD, the pressure-based solver of SIMPLE algorithm is often used for low-speed flows and the density-based solver for high-speed flows. This challenge aims to validate the stability of Baram's incompressible solver, buoyantSimpleNFoam, in the subsonic compressible flow regime.

We use a high-speed train model with simplified vehicle connections, bogies (wheels), and pantographs, and the train speed is 400 km/h.

With a mesh of about 2 million mesh, the convergence was achieved in about 300 iterations (about 20 minutes on an 8-core CPU). The convergence is much better compared to the results obtained using OpenFOAM's standard solvers buoyantSimpleFoam and rhoSimpleFoam.

Geometry

Use given stl file for train geometry.

Using [Hex6] for the computational domain and one hexahedron to create a dense mesh around the vehicle, set it up as shown in the following image.


Click the [Import] button at the bottom to select the train.stl file.

You will have a volume called Visualization_Toolkit_generated_SLA_File and a surface called Visualization_Toolkit_generated_SLA_File_surface.

In Geometry, select a face and right-click and select Edit/View. In the window that opens, change the name as train_surface로 변경한다.

Create hexahedron for computational domain

Click the [Add] button and select [Hex6] and set values as follows

  • far : Use [Hex6] to define inlet, outlet, bottom, etc.
    • Type : None
    • Min./Max. : (-75 -40 0) / (260 0 40)
    • Since it is symmetrical, we only create half of it in the y-axis.

In Geometry, select surfaces and right-click and select Edit/View. In the window that opens, change the name as follows

  • far_xMin : inlet
  • far_xMax : outlet
  • far_yMin : side
  • far_yMax : symmetry
  • far_zMin : ground
  • far_zMax : top


Create hexahedron for mesh refinement

Click the [Add] button and select [Hex] and set values as follows

  • refine box : Use [Hex]
    • Type : None
    • Min./Max. : (-18 -5 0) / (100 5 7)

In Geometry, select Hex_1_surface and right-click and select Edit/View. In the window that opens, change the type to [None]


Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Region

Click the (+) icon at the top to create a region. Move the mouse to the intersection of the lines that appear in light green color in the graphics window and position it inside the computation domain. Click the [Add] button to complete the setup.


Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Base Grid

Select [Use Hex6] option and set the number of grids to 100, 20, and 20. Click the [Generate] button to generate the base grid.


Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Castellation

Use default conditions for [Configuration] and [Advanced].

Define mesh refinement for the car.

Click the (+) icon under [Surface/Feature Refinement] and set the following settings for train_surface

  • Surface Refinement
    • Minimum Level : 5
    • Maximum Level : 5
  • Feature Edge refinement Level : 5
  • Surfaces : train_surface


Click the (+) icon under [Volume Refinement] and set the following settings for Hex_1

  • Volume Refinement Level : 4
  • Volume : Hex_1


When you're done setting up, your screen should look like this


To enable parallelization, click [Parallel]-[Environment] in the menu and enter the desired value for [Number of Cores].

Click the [Refine] button and the castellation step starts.

Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Snap

Use the default settings and click the [Snap] button to start snap.

Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Boundary Layer

Create boundary layer at car body.

Click the (+) icon under [Configuration] to add a [Setting], and set it as follows

  • Number of Layers : 5
  • Thickness Model Specification : First and Expansion
  • Size Specification) : Relative
  • First Layer Thickness : 0.1
  • Expansion Ratio : 1.2
  • Min. Total Thickness : 0.3
  • Boundary : train_surface


Use default settings for [Advanced Configuration].


Click [Apply] button to start boundary layer step.

The final mesh looks like this

Click the [Next] button to move on to the next step.

Export

Click [Export as BaramFlow project] to export the mesh to the desired location.