A comparative study on the crosswind stability of the railway vehicle considering distinct national standards

The crosswind stability of railway vehicles, considering distinct national standards in both quasi-steady and unsteady wind conditions, like Chinese hat gust wind (EN 14067-6, 2010), is systematically evaluated. Initially, it is observed that the quasi-static analysis (QSA) proposed in Japan marginally underestimates the wheel unloading ratio of railway vehicles by approximately 3 %, as the external forces increase beyond a certain threshold in quasi-steady winds due to the neglect of the vertical degree of freedom and the inability to accurately evaluate the activation of vertical bump stops. Subsequently, to accurately assess the crosswind responses of railway vehicles under realistic conditions, a non-linear lateral acceleration model is proposed to account for the effects of track irregularities, validated against field test data. Finally, it is noted that the Chinese standard is more conservative, with characteristic wind speeds (CWC) approximately 2 m/s lower than those calculated by the European standard, while the Japanese guideline is more stringent at high train velocities but more lenient at low velocities. The CWC evaluated under gust wind conditions is around 2.4 m/s higher than those obtained under quasi-steady winds, due to the maximum gust wind speed is low-pass filtered by the centered moving average method. • The crosswind stability of railway vehicles, considering distinct national standards is systematically evaluated. • A simple non-linear acceleration model is proposed to evaluate effects of track irregularity. • The Japanese guideline is more stringent at high train velocities but more lenient at lower velocities. • Compared to the European standard, the Chinese standard is more conservative.