Effect of Ambient Air Temperature on the Compression Wave Propagating along a Railway Tunnel

Abstract

The parameters of the compression wave propagating in a railway tunnel are significantly influenced by the large ambient air temperature variation throughout the year. High-speed train entering a railway tunnel produces a wave of finite amplitude to propagate at sonic speed. The wave attenuates while propagation through viscous dissipation and inertial forces nonlinearly steepen the wave. As a result of the dependence of sound speed on air temperature, the wave characteristics are altered with changing temperature. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehend the impact of ambient air temperature on the properties of the compression wave in order to construct an aero-acoustically ideal railway tunnel system. The method of characteristics (MOC) has been used to solve Euler equations with steady and unsteady friction parameters in the current study. According to the findings, wave attenuation ratio is reducing along the tunnel length, and gradient is rising as train speed increases. The case study illustrates the key distance within a tunnel where the steepening ratio is at its highest point. This critical tunnel length is estimated to be 65 times the tunnel hydraulic diameter (300 km/h) for a particular air temperature (T = 323 K), and it decreases by 15% for a 70 K reduction (323K to 253K) in temperature. Similarly, the critical length falls by 40% for greater train speeds (500 km/h).

Keywords

• non-linear effect
• tunnel aeroacoustics
• unsteady friction
• wave distortion
• wave propagation