Eur Ing Alan Vardy
ICE Telford Gold Medal Paper 2010
Trains entering railways tunnels at high speeds generate strong pressure waves. These bounce back and forth through the tunnels just like water hammer waves in pipes. The pressure change can cause discomfort to passengers. Railway operators have developed a portfolio of measures to reduce the pressures or their consequences, but all such measures are costly. What pressure levels can be regarded as acceptable?
Train speeds continue to increase, creating challenges for railway designers and operators. In the case of tunnels, sonic booms are emitted into the open environment outside tunnels - causing potential annoyance to many people. The choice of acceptable criteria for this phenomenon is especially uncertain.
Alan Vardy covers both of these topics in his presentation and explains some of the measures used to limit potential discomfort. He also discusses more ambitious measures that have not yet been implemented but might be needed in future when speeds may be even higher than today.
Alan Vardy won the 2009 Telford Gold Medal Award for this paper which was first published in Engineering and Computational Mechanics in September 2008.
For more information, please contact (recordedlectures@ice.org.uk)
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Generation and alleviation of sonic booms from railway tunnels
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