Safety comparisons of a high-speed train’s head and tail passing by a windbreak breach

Field tests were carried out to measure the wheel-rail forces of a high-speed train passing by a windbreak breach with a crosswind speed and a train speed of 32 m/s and 120 km/h, respectively. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations and multibody dynamic simulations were carried out to reproduce the field test experiments. The results obtained indicated that the side force and yawing moment of the train plays a key role in the safety of the head and the tail of the train when it passes by a windbreak breach. By analysing the flow structures, the reasons behind the different aerodynamic loads on the train head and tail were discussed. Based on the vehicle movement, the maximum derailment coefficient (0.8) of the train head appeared to be at a higher risk of danger as compared to the maximum derailment coefficient (0.2) of the train tail. This is due to the wind loads on the train head which compel the bogies to relatively move with the carbody along the lateral direction one more time than the train tail. Whereas, for the train tail, there is no relative motion between the carbody and bogies on the tail.