Numerical study on the influence of initial ambient temperature on the aerodynamic heating in the tube train system

The evacuated tube transportation has great potential in the future because of its advantages of energy saving and environmental protection. The train runs in the closed tube at ultra-high speed. The heat quantity generated by aerodynamic heating is not easy to spread to external environment and then accumulates in the tube, inducing the ambient temperature in the tube to rise gradually. In this paper, a three-dimensional geometric model and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) κ-ω turbulence model are used to study the influence of initial ambient temperature on the structure of the flow field in the tube. Simulation results show that when the train runs at transonic speed, the supersonic flow region with low temperature and low-pressure is produced in the wake. The structure of the flow field of the wake will change with the initial ambient temperature. And the higher the initial ambient temperature is, the shorter the low temperature region in the wake will be. The larger temperature difference caused by the low temperature region may increase the temperature stress of the tube and affect the equipment inside the tube. Consequently, the temperature inside the tube can be maintained at a reasonable value to reduce the influence of the low temperature region in the wake on the system.