A new specifically developed equipment for the production of artificial snow and the application to a disk brake testing rig combined with an additional climate-conditioned wind tunnel is reported. A railway company asked its subcontractors for brake linings for the functional proof of their product under snow conditions. Under the aim to extend the research and test phase of these components also to the non-winter seasons a specific technique for the production of artificial snow was developed. Small water droplets are injected into a cooled air stream. In this machine normal air is fed into a pre-chamber by a fan and additionally dried by cooling. In a subsequent conditioning chamber this air volume is cooled further. Due to the fact that a complete drying of the air is not possible in the pre-chamber ice formation at the evaporator is taking place. This effect results in both, a reduction of the air stream and of the heat flow and thus leads to reduced air cooling capacity after a specific time in operation. In order to guarantee continuous cooling a second evaporator which can be hooked up alternatively was installed. As soon as the first evaporator is coated with ice the second one is switched on and the first machine is defrosted by switching to a hot gas mode. Actual experimental results indicate that complex and generally applicable solutions are not achievable, but that individual applications adopted to the actual conditions can provide excellent and reproducible results. The obtained quality of the artificially produced snow can in this case be continuously varied in a defined wide range between the extreme morphologies from wet to powder snow.
Artificial snow systems for disk-brake testing and wind tunnel application
Erzeugung von Kunstschnee für die Prüfung von Fahrzeugscheibenbremsen und für Windkanalanwendungen
Spektrum. Fachhochschule Regensburg ; 2 ; 62-66
2003
5 Seiten, 11 Bilder
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Englisch
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