Study on the operational safety of high-speed trains exposed to stochastic winds

The characteristic wind curve (CWC) was commonly used in the previous work to evaluate the operational safety of the high-speed trains exposed to crosswinds. However, the CWC only provide the dividing line between safety state and failure state of high-speed trains, which can not evaluate the risk of derailment of high-speed trains when exposed to natural winds. In the present paper, a more realistic approach taking into account the stochastic characteristics of natural winds is proposed, which can give a reasonable and effective assessment of the operational safety of high-speed trains under stochastic winds. In this approach, the longitudinal and lateral components of stochastic winds are simulated based on the Cooper theory and harmonic superposition. An algorithm is set up for calculating the unsteady aerodynamic forces (moments) of the high-speed trains exposed to stochastic winds. A multi-body dynamic model of the rail vehicle is established to compute the vehicle system dynamic response subjected to the unsteady aerodynamic forces (moments) input. Then the statistical method is used to get the mean characteristic wind curve (MCWC) and spread range of the high-speed trains exposed to stochastic winds. It is found that the CWC provided by the previous analytical method produces over-conservative limits. The methodology proposed in the present paper can provide more significant reference for the safety operation of high-speed trains exposed to stochastic winds.