Rail Tec Arsenal
The RTA Rail Tec Arsenal vehicle testing station GmbH is an internationally operating institute that rail and road vehicles, new transportation systems and general technical devices that are exposed to the weather, testing and researching them. One of their best-known test facilities is the climatic wind tunnel in Vienna , currently the largest wind tunnel in the world.
history
The company was founded by several European rail vehicle manufacturers (e.g. Alstom Transport , Bombardier Transportation , Siemens and others).
In 1961, the first "thermal and cooling test facility for railway vehicles" was opened on an area provided by Austria, part of the Vienna arsenal . Construction began on September 18, 1958, and the plant was put into operation on June 22, 1961. Like today's climatic wind tunnel, it consisted of two individual tunnels, but they were a little less powerful, only temperatures between −40 ° C and +50 ° C and a maximum wind speed of 120 km / h can be achieved. After some improvements in the years 1973 to 1974, an output from minus to plus 50 ° C and a maximum wind speed of 250 km / h were achieved. The plant was shut down on December 31, 2002, and on January 1 of the new year the move to the new climatic wind tunnel took place.
Current climatic wind tunnel
The Climatic Wind Tunnel is a wind tunnel , which was completed in December 2002 and is located in the Viennese district of Floridsdorf, especially for rail vehicles, in which aspects of flow dynamics such as the effects of temperature fluctuations, solar radiation and precipitation, condensation and frost can be examined. Strictly speaking, there are two wind tunnels, the "large climatic wind tunnel" and the "small climatic wind tunnel".
Building history
After an initial feasibility study in 1997, the project contract was signed on March 1, 1999. The first cut of the spade followed after the turn of the millennium, on March 8, 2001. The commissioning of the smaller of the two wind tunnels took place in June 2002; in December 2002 the entire system was completed. The budget was 65 million euros.
investment
Structure of the plant
The two wind tunnels run parallel to each other. The small climatic wind tunnel is directly connected to a preheating chamber in which climatic tests, for example thermal simulations, can be carried out, but the preheating chamber also serves to adapt the temperature of the test items to the temperature in the wind tunnel. There are two non-connected preparation halls for construction, development and conversion work.
Technical specifications
| Small CHP | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | ||
| length | 100 m | 31 m |
| width | 5 m | |
| height | 6 m | |
| Climate simulation | ||
| Wind speed | 10 to 300 km / h | 10 to 120 km / h |
| Temperature range | −50 ° C to +60 ° C | |
| Rate of temperature change | 10 K / h | |
| Relative humidity | up to 98% | |
| Lateral sun field | ||
| length | 47.5 m | 30 m |
| height | 4.3 m | |
| power | 250-1000 W / m² | |
| Angle of incidence | 0 ° to 90 ° | |
| Frontal solar field | ||
| length | 4 m | |
| height | 3 m | |
| power | 250-1000 W / m² | |
| Angle of incidence | 0 ° to 90 ° | |
| Preheating chamber | ||
| length | - | 30 m |
| Temperature range | +5 ° C to +60 ° C | |
| Preparation hall | ||
| length | 100 m | 60 m |
Further information on the two climatic wind tunnels
- Large climatic wind tunnel
In addition to the rails for rail vehicles, the large climatic wind tunnel also has a roller dynamometer , which is located in the front part of the system. The first pair of rollers can be driven with a power of up to 850 kW , the second pair of rollers has no drive. The exhaust gases generated during the operation of combustion engines can be removed from the system through exhaust air openings in the roof and side wall area, between 0.2 and 3.2 kilograms of exhaust gases can be sucked out of the system per second.
- Small climatic wind tunnel
Here the exhaust gases can be removed from the wind tunnel through openings in the roof and side wall area in the middle of the chamber with a mass throughput of 0.32 kg / s to 3.2 kg / s at 200 ° C, with an exhaust gas temperature of 600 ° C a mass throughput of 0.7 kg / s is still possible.
- Sun fields
There are several so-called solar fields in the wind tunnels to simulate solar radiation.
The lateral solar field ensures that the vehicles to be tested on the roof and then the side surfaces are illuminated with sun-like light. A side surface of the vehicle and the roof can be relatively homogeneous - from a height of at least 0.75 m to a height of 4.3 m in the range of 250 to 600 W / m² with a deviation of ± 120 W / m², im Range of 600 to 1,000 W / m² with a deviation of ± 100 W / m².
The frontal solar field, on the other hand, irradiates the front of the vehicles. In addition to the option of setting the radiation intensity between 250 W / m² and 1,000 W / m², the angle of incidence can also be varied between 0 ° and 90 °.
- Rain, snow and ice simulation
In order to simulate other weather conditions, for example rain, snow and / or ice simulation, a spray rig, individual glands and a sprinkler system were installed.
In order to ensure local snow-making or freezing, there were individual glands installed in the tunnel ; they can only be used if the wind speed in the channel is below 160 km / h and the temperature is at a minimum of −20 ° C.
A sprinkler system is also installed in the ceiling area. It can produce up to 80 liters of precipitation per square meter and per hour on the entire test track, with the irrigation system being divided into segments each 15 m long so that it can be individually controlled in which section of the wind tunnel it should rain.
A so-called spray rig is responsible for the front of the object to be tested . It can be used to make uniform sprinkling, snow-making or icing of the vehicle's front surface, with droplet sizes of up to less than 20 micrometers being achieved.
