The potential for energy savings by reducing the aerodynamic drag of rail cars is significant. A previous study of aerodynamic drag of coal cars suggests that a 25% reduction in drag of empty cars would correspond to a 5% fuel savings for a round trip [1]. Rail statistics for the United States [2] report that approximately 5.7 billion liters of diesel fuel were consumed for coal transportation in 2002, so a 5% fuel savings would total 284 million liters. This corresponds to 2% of Class I railroad fuel consumption nationwide. As part of a DOE-sponsored study, the aerodynamic drag of scale rail cars was measured in a wind tunnel. The goal of the study was to measure the drag reduction of various rail-car cover designs. The cover designs tested yielded an average drag reduction of 43% relative to empty cars corresponding to an estimated round-trip fuel savings of 9%.


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    Title :

    Fuel Savings and Aerodynamic Drag Reduction from Rail Car Covers


    Contributors:
    Storms, Bruce (author) / Salari, Kambiz (author) / Babb, Alex (author)

    Conference:

    AfricaRail 2008 ; 2008 ; Johannesburg, South Africa


    Publication date :

    2008-06-02


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :


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