Research on the Comprehensive Climate Environment Test Methods for Railway Vehicles in Climate Wind Tunnel

Abstract

A climatic wind tunnel provides the opportunity to investigate the impact of weather on rail vehicles and components under realistic operating conditions. Any weather conditions can be produced at the push of a button – from intense solar radiation through to snow, rain and ice. The combination with wind, load and drive cycle simulations allows the implementation of realistic test scenarios. Thermal comfort, functionality, energy efficiency and aerodynamics are the key focus of rail vehicle testing. In order to ensure comparable results reproducible conditions and defined requirements are essential. For the investigation of thermal comfort different standards like EN 13129, EN 14750, EN 14813 and UIC 553 are existing. Several functional tests for various components are described in the new Technical Report CEN/TR 16251. The focus of this paper is to present the requirements and testing methods.