Anti-snow performance of snow shields designed for brake calipers of a high-speed train

When high-speed trains run on a snowy railway line in cold weather, a large amount of snow and ice will accumulate on the brake calipers, which can lead to huge safety problems. In this paper, to solve this issue, a numerical method based on the detached eddy simulation was used to explore the flow features of a high-speed train running in cold weather. The accuracy of mesh resolution and methodology of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was validated against the wind tunnel tests. A discrete phase model was used to investigate the process of snow accumulation on the brake calipers by analysing the movement characteristics of snow particles. Based on this analysis, three kinds of anti-snow packing shields for the brake calipers were designed, and the shielding effects were compared via numerical simulations. The results show that a large amount of snow particles below the bogie directly impact the brake calipers causing massive snow packing on the bottom surfaces; some snow particles reflected from the rear equipment cabin cover return to the bogie region and accumulates on the upper surfaces. With the application of anti-snow packing shields with trapezoidal-, triangular- and cambered-shaped openings, the rates of snow accumulation on the brake calipers were reduced by 18.53, 26.68 and 38.81%, respectively. The cambered type provides the best anti-snow packing performance for the brake calipers.