Effects of Wind Barrier Porosity on the Coupled Vibration of a Train-Bridge System in a Crosswind

This paper investigates the effect of wind barrier porosity on the dynamic performance of a railway bridge and the safety of the trains using it. Dynamic analyses were performed on a long-span cabled-stayed bridge in China. The bridge was modeled with spatial finite elements and each vehicle was modeled with a multi-rigid-body system. The wind excitations on the bridge and train were numerically simulated using the aerodynamic coefficients measured by wind tunnel tests. Simulations were conducted of trains passing over the bridge in a crosswind for different wind barrier porosities. The results show that the wind barrier porosity has a great influence on the aerodynamic performance of the bridge and the trains, and the maximum vertical displacement of the bridge increases as the wind barrier porosity increases from 10 to 40%. The effect of porosity on the dynamic responses of the windward train is greater than the effect on the leeward train. When the wind barrier porosity increases from 20 to 40%, derailment factors and offload factors increase significantly for the windward train.