Research on the wind-sheltering performance of different forms of corrugated wind barriers on railway bridges

Abstract

The variation laws of flow field structure leeward a corrugated wind barrier with different bending angles and their sheltering performance on a train above a railway bridge were studied in the present work. Wind tunnel tests with and without a vehicle body were carried out, and the corresponding numerical simulations were conducted. A good agreement between the simulation and the corrected experimental results were obtained. As the bending angle increased, wind barriers’ protection performance on the train, as well as the wind load of the barriers themselves decreased. The distributions of velocity, turbulence intensity and the turbulence kinetic energy were compared and analyzed. Based on the flow patterns caused by different bending angles, various applications can be presented. Wind barriers with a bending angle of 60° had a reliable velocity reduction performance and a lower aerodynamic coefficient, can be a good choice as a trade-off between wind sheltering and added loads on the bridge. No corrugated barrier was considered a good choice when the railway lines were suffered from the dust environment. A higher bending angle (75° and 90°) should be better to weaken the contact wire vibrations.