Protective effect of railway bridge wind barriers on moving trains: An experimental study

Wind barriers are an important wind protection facility that has been commonly used in high-speed railways to ensure the ride comfort and driving safety of high-speed trains in wind-prone areas. This paper presents an experimental study on the protective effect of wind barriers on the moving head and tail train vehicles under crosswinds for the first time. This study utilized a novel wind tunnel test device of a moving train model. The effects of the wind speed and the height and porosity of the wind barriers on the protective effect for moving trains were investigated considering the aerodynamic characteristics of the moving train. The protective effects of the wind barrier on the head and tail vehicles were compared, and the relationship between the vehicle aerodynamic characteristics with and without employing the porous wind barrier was discussed to simplify the test conditions and improve the evaluation efficiency of the protective effect of the wind barrier. The results indicated that the protective effect of the wind barriers on the moving train varied with different yaw angles. In addition, the height and porosity of the wind barriers significantly affected the protective effect of the wind barriers. Furthermore, the relationship between the vehicle overturning moment coefficient, an important indicator for vehicle safety evaluation, with and without employing the porous wind barrier, is quantified via a wind speed reduction coefficient. The wind speed reduction coefficient enables fast prediction of the vehicle overturning moment coefficient after the installation of porous wind barrier at any given yaw angle β, without conducting additional wind tunnel tests. •A novel testing facility is developed to facilitate the moving train wind tunnel test.•The aerodynamic characteristics of head and tail vehicles of high-speed train considering the wind barrier is investigated.•The influence of wind speed and the height and porosity of wind barrier is evaluated.•The relationship between the vehicle overturning moment coefficient with and without employing wind barrier is quantified.•The wind speed reduction coefficient enables predicting vehicle overturning moment coefficient after installing wind barrier.