Abstract
Wind barrier structures on railway bridges are installed to mitigate the wind effects on travelling trains; however, they cause additional wind loads and associated aerodynamic effects on the bridge. An innovative concept was developed for a wind barrier structure in this study that used a glass–fibre–reinforced polymer (GFRP) that may deform properly when subjected to a crosswind. Such deformation then allows for wind to pass, therefore reducing the wind loads transferred to the bridge. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted on a 1/40-scale train and bridge models with the proposed GFRP barrier subjected to airflow at different speeds up to 20 m/s. The side-force and overturning-moment coefficients of both the train and the bridge were evaluated to characterise the aerodynamic effects. The results show that favourable side-force and overturning-moment coefficients of the train were provided by wind barriers taller than 10 cm. The aerodynamic coefficients of the train were not significantly affected by the airflow speeds; meanwhile, the overturning-moment coefficient of the bridge decreased with the increase in airflow speed due to smaller wind resistance of the barrier after deformation. A numerical analysis was conducted on both the reduced- and full-scale models of the train–barrier–bridge system and the results supported the findings obtained from the wind tunnel experiments.
Highlights
Strong crosswinds may cause safety problems, such as shaking, derailment and overturning of travelling trains [1,2,3]
In order to further demonstrate the practicability of the proposed adaptive wind barriers at full scale, finite element (FE) modelling for the reduced-scale train–barrier–bridge system was developed using Ansys for validation through a comparison to the wind tunnel experiments
An innovative concept for a wind barrier was proposed to reduce the wind load transferred from the barrier to the bridge through the adaptive deformation of the barrier in crosswind scenarios
Summary
Strong crosswinds may cause safety problems, such as shaking, derailment and overturning of travelling trains [1,2,3]. Apart from the limitation on the operating speed and the cancellation of train trips in strong-wind scenarios, wind barriers have been used to mitigate the negative effects of crosswind on trains [3,4], and are considered an effective and economical way [5,6] to improve the safety of travelling trains. Wind tunnel tests [6,7,8,9] and numerical modelling [10,11,12,13] have been conducted to investigate the associated parameters to understand the aerodynamic performance of wind barriers and trains. The effects of airflow speed, train speed and wind directions on the aerodynamic performance of a train with a rigid wind barrier were investigated through wind tunnel tests. It was concluded that a scenario with a static train is more critical than those with moving trains in terms of the mechanical loads on the train caused by the crosswind; the effect of airflow speeds on Materials 2020, 13, 4214; doi:10.3390/ma13184214 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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