PREDICTION OF THE AERODYNAMIC LOADS ON A RAILWAY TRAIN IN A CROSS-WIND AT LARGE YAW ANGLES USING AN INTEGRATED 2-DIMENSIONAL AND 3-DIMENSIONAL SOURCE VORTEX PANEL METHOD

A three-dimensional source/vortex panel method has been developed to p redict the aerodynamic loads on an idealized railway train model in a cross-wind at large yaw angles up to 90 degrees. In this model, the su rface of the train and the wake on the leeside are modelled by a numbe r of source and vortex panels, respectively, The algorithm involves th e combination of a two- and a three-dimensional procedure in which the two-dimensional calculation simplifies dramatically the computation r equired for the three-dimensional calculation. The results compare wel l with experiment.