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CFD Analysis of Ventilation of Indian Railway 2 Tier AC Sleeper Coach

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Recent Advances in Fluid Dynamics

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering ((LNME))

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Abstract

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to analyse the ventilation system of an AC coach for safer as well as comfortable ride. In this study we have simulated the airflow, temperature distribution and velocity distribution inside the cabin, to find out the best layout for comfortable temperature as well as reduced chances of airborne infection. We have simulated various ventilation layouts of the 2 tier AC train coach of Indian Railways, to study the effect of the position of the inlet and outlet ports on the temperature and velocity distribution inside the cabin. CFD analysis was done using the Ansys Fluent solver employing the realizable k-ε model to solve the turbulence problem. Herein, a total of 12 layouts were simulated with 6 heated manikins sitting inside the cabin. The results of the study suggested that the temperature distribution inside the cabin changes significantly with a change in the inlet port position. Further, the layout with the above window and/or roof outlet has a relatively lower cabin temperature. This study forms the basis for further investigations to analyse the transmission of infection via cough droplets inside the cabin (unreported here). The results of this research are important for finding the optimum position of the inlet and outlet ports in AC coaches to enhance the overall thermal comfort and reduce infection transmission inside the cabin.

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Abbreviations

ACH :

 Air Change per Hour

ASHRAE :

 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air conditioning Engineers

CFD :

 Computational Fluid Dynamics

CAD :

 Computer-Aided Design

DNS :

 Direct Numerical Solution

LES :

 Large Eddy Simulation

LHB :

 Linke Hofmann Busch

RDSO :

 Research Design and Standards Organization

RANS :

 Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Mr. Sanjeev Garg from RDSO Lucknow for providing us all the technical information needed for this study. Thanks also go to the MHRD GOI for financially supporting the lead author’s studentship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, MNNIT Allahabad, Prayagraj, India

    Jay S. Kachhadiya, Mukul Shukla & Swastik Acharya

  2. EDR, RDSO Lucknow, Lucknow, India

    S. K. Singh

Authors
  1. Jay S. Kachhadiya
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  2. Mukul Shukla
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  3. Swastik Acharya
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  4. S. K. Singh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jay S. Kachhadiya .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India

    Jyotirmay Banerjee

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India

    Rupesh D. Shah

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, USA

    Ramesh K. Agarwal

  4. Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, ON, Canada

    Sushanta Mitra

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Kachhadiya, J.S., Shukla, M., Acharya, S., Singh, S.K. (2023). CFD Analysis of Ventilation of Indian Railway 2 Tier AC Sleeper Coach. In: Banerjee, J., Shah, R.D., Agarwal, R.K., Mitra, S. (eds) Recent Advances in Fluid Dynamics . Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3379-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3379-0_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-3378-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-3379-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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