Experimental and Numerical Analyses of a Novel Wing-In-Ground Vehicle

Martijn van Sluis, Sina Nasrollahi, Arvind Gangoli Rao and Georg Eitelberg
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Martijn van Sluis: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Sina Nasrollahi: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Arvind Gangoli Rao: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands
Georg Eitelberg: Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-27

Abstract: The AeroCity is a new form of transportation concept that has been developed to provide high-speed ground transportation at a much lower cost than the existing high-speed railway. Utilizing the Wing-in-Ground (WIG) effect, the AeroCity vehicle does not require complex infrastructures like other contemporary concepts, such as the Hyperloop or Maglev trains. In the current work, the aerodynamic characteristics of the AeroCity vehicle are examined through a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. The results from the CFD analysis qualitatively match with the findings of wind tunnel experiments. Surface streamlines and boundary layer measurements correspond well with the numerical data. However, the force measurements show a discrepancy. It is found that the separation bubble over the side plates is not captured by the CFD, and this is responsible for an under-prediction of the drag at higher free-stream velocities. The Transition SST model improved the matching between the experiments and numerical simulations. The influence of the moving ground is numerically investigated, and the effect of non-moving ground on the vehicle aerodynamics was found not to be significant. Finally, the inclusion of the track wall is examined. It is found that the merging of the wingtip vortices is responsible for a significant drag increase and, therefore, an alternative track geometry should be investigated.

Keywords: AeroCity; ground effect; WIG; aerodynamics; CFD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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