Passenger carriages heat insulation tool

Abstract

Introduction. This is a description of a technology for assessing the quality of thermal insulation of passenger carriages bodies using the portable tool developed. The research focuses on the thermal insulation characteristics of the walls of passenger carriages bodies. Heat insulation is assessed by the reduced heat transfer coefficient which increases during the service life driving up the costs of heating and air-conditioning the car interior. The thermal camera helps create a heat enginering data sheet of the car with photos of the body parts with poor thermal insulation. However, the overhaul of the car requires pinpointing these places by measuring locally the specific thermal resistance of the body walls. The research is intended to develop a method for determining the specific thermal resistance of the walls of passenger carriages bodies in minimal time using a portable tool.Materials and methods. The research methods are a combination of a physical experiment on a section of the wall of a passenger carriage body and on a model of such wall using the developed tool, as well as a digital experiment on their 3D-models. In particular, the tool calibration involved a finite element analysis of an unsteady thermal process in a digital model of the tool and a 3D-model of the passenger carriage body using SolidWorks Simulation software.Results. The authors prove that the portable tool can determine the local specific heat resistance in a passenger carriage body wall in minimal time of 40 minutes.Discussion and conclusion. The portable passenger carriage heat insulation tool can be used for input and output control of thermal insulation of a passenger carriage during a major overhaul.

Keywords

• passenger carriage body
• wall heat insulation characteristics
• heat transfer coefficient
• specific thermal resistance
• portable tool
• virtual tool
• unsteady thermal process