Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Aerodynamic Improvements For Auto-Carrying Railcars, Robert Arthur Condie

Theses and Dissertations

The railroad industry is responsible for the mass transport of a vast numbers of goods throughout the United States. As needs and capabilities of the railroad industry have changed, the interest in reducing the resistance of locomotives and railcars has increased. This has become paramount as fuel prices have increased in recent years. Resistant forces can result from friction in mechanical components and aerodynamic drag of the moving train. As the average traveling speeds of trains have increased, aerodynamics are contributing a larger fraction of the overall resistance. For this reason, the aerodynamic profiles of trains have become a topic …