Experimental study on the aerodynamic forces on railway vehicles in presence of turbulence

The present research work is based on an experimental campaign of wind tunnel tests aimed at investigating the crosswind aerodynamic of a lightweight railway vehicle. The performed tests allow to measure the aerodynamic forces on the vehicles for different wind exposures and over a wide range of Reynolds number. In addition, different Atmospheric boundary layer simulations are performed by varying the turbulence intensity indexes and the integral length scales of the wind generated in the wind tunnel. The work focuses on the role of the atmospheric wind turbulence in the definition of the crosswind loads on this typology of railway vehicles. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.