Some complex applications of the “wind loading chain”

This paper describes applications of the concept of the wind loading chain to two complex problems related to road and rail transport. The first application is the calculation of the stability of a train in a high crosswind. This calculation is carried out in the frequency domain, and the major complication is the need to use a moving frame of reference. The calculations show that the vertical suspension characteristics are of major significance in the calculation. The second application is the calculation of the fluctuating displacement of a plate at the side of the roadway. The plate is affected by three flow phenomena—the wind itself, the slipstream of passing vehicles and the vehicle pressure transients, and the intermittent nature of the last two of these leads to the calculation being carried out in the time domain. It is shown that the nature of the loading on the plate is crucially dependent upon the distance from the traffic stream and the relative wind and vehicle speeds.