Kingfisher Bird Bullet Train

But the chief engineer for the West Japan Railway Company was a birder and hed seen Eurasian Kingfishers dive into water creating hardly a splash. In part it owes its success to a small bird the kingfisher.

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Sure enough as his team tested different shapes for the front of the new train the train became quieter and more efficient as the geometry of its nose became more like the shape of a kingfishers beak requiring 15 less energy while traveling even faster than before.

Kingfisher bird bullet train. This design was then applied to bullet trains fixing the sound problem by allowing the train. Or an Adélie penguin. One of the engineers on the project considered a possible solution from an unusual.

The Kingfisher and the Shinkansen Bullet Train. How a kingfisher helped reshape Japans bullet train. The Kingfisher and the bullet train In the news Zoe E Elwood College.

This shape pushes water out of the way rather than ahead of the bird and this is exactly what the engineers wanted to accomplish with their train -- pushing air out of. High-speed passenger trains in Japan were once a real headache because their engineering caused a tunnel boom a huge boom created by air being pushed out of the tunnel ahead of a train. They then re-designed the front end of the train to mimic the shape of the kingfishers beak.

These birds have a streamlined bill that allow them to easily dive into water and catch fish. Just as a kingfisher dives seamlessly smoothly into the water without hardly a splash the modified bullet train became much quieter with journeys becoming smoother too following this modification. How is Japans Shinkansen a long-nosed bullet train that travels up to 240320 kmh 150200 mph like a kingfisher.

The solution to this problem came from an unlikely place. Japan uses many bullet trains which travel at nearly 200 mph but not without problems. In pursuit of a tasty meal the kingfisher can dive into water with very little splash.

When the trains go through tunnels the air ahead of the train compresses which creates a sonic boom as the train exits the other end. But thanks to a spot of bird-watching. The Shinkansen Bullet Train in Japan travels at a speed of 320 miles per hour.

The kingfisher is not the only animal that inspired pieces of the bullet train. Kaz Okuda from Pixabay. The Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan were conceived in the early 1900s as a means of high-speed travel.

The Kingfishers Beak Traveling at speeds of nearly 200 miles 300 km an hour the Japanese bullet train is one of the fastest in the world. Japanese engineers used a bird called a kingfisher to help redesign a bullet train. Japans famous bullet train used to make a loud boom when it travelled through tunnels.

Biomimicry is using nature to find sustainable solutions to human problems. The great Leonardo da Vinci and later the famous Wright brothers were amongst those who instinctively recognised the value of imitating nature. Their bill is specially designed so air and water pass over it reducing drag and resistance the forces that slow down the bullet train and lead to the loud sound waves 6.

When the train would emerge from the tunnel the large difference in air pressures due to the high velocity created a thunder-like crack which was very loud and disturbing to those living near the railway. Learn more on EarthSky. The kingfishers beak inspired them to design a 15-metre nosecone like a pointed nose on the front car of the bullet train.

Human flight would not exist if not based on the ingenious shape of a birds wings A bullet train that drew inspiration from a Kingfisher birds beak. Japanese researchers used the owls concave face and its serrated wings to remodel the pantograph and absorb this noise. After attending a 1990 lecture on birds by an aviation engineer Nakatsu who is also an engineer realized studying the flight of birds could bring his train and us into the future.

They succeeded in their job however due to travelling at 200 miles per hour about 320 kph they generated noise levels that could be heard 400 metres away. Eiji Nakatsu was the general manager of the technical development department for the so-called bullet trains of Japan famed for their speed and safety record. In this video from Vox and 99 Invisible we see how these three birds influenced the 1989 redesign of this high speed train with the help of birdwatching and biomimicry.

The pantograph a piece that connects the train to the power source also used to make noise. They noticed how kingfisher birds are able to slice through the air and dive into the water to catch prey while barely making a splash. The engineers looked to nature to re-design the bullet train.

That fact intrigued Eiji Nakatsu an engineer who directed test runs of the bullet train. Last Updated November 9 2020.

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