Wind Load Characteristics of Wind Barriers Induced by High-Speed Trains Based on Field Measurements

This paper focuses on field measurements and analyses of train-generated wind loads on wind barriers (3.0 m height and porosity 0%) with respect to different running speeds of the CRH380A EMU vehicle. Multi-resolution analysis was conducted to identify the pressure distribution in different frequency bands. Results showed that the wind pressure on the wind barrier caused by train-induced wind had two significant impacts with opposite directions, which were the “head wave” and “tail wave”. The peak wind pressure on the wind barrier was approximately proportional to the square of the speed of the train, and the peak wind pressure decreased rapidly along the wind barrier height from the bottom of the wind barrier. The maximum wind pressure occurred at the rail surface height. Furthermore, results of the multi-resolution analysis illustrated that the energy of the frequency band from 0 to 2.44 Hz accounted for 94% of the total energy. This indicated that the low-frequency range component of the wind pressure dominated the design of the wind barrier. The frequency of pulse excitation of train-induced wind loads may overlap with the natural frequency of barriers, and may lead to fatigue failure due to cyclic loads generated by the repeated passage of high-speed trains. In addition, the speed of the train had a negligible effect on the energy distribution of the wind pressure in the frequency domain, while the extreme pressure increased slightly with the increase of the speed of the train.