A pilot study of the wind speed along the Rome–Naples HS/HC railway line. Part 1—Numerical modelling and wind simulations

The safety of railway operation under wind actions has recently become a topical matter due to the development of high-speed trains, which are very sensitive to crosswind conditions. For this reason, RFI (the Italian railway network) has entrusted the University of Genoa with a study of the wind hazard of the Rome–Naples High Speed (HS)/High Capacity (HC) railway line. A consistent part of this study is focused on the probabilistic analysis of the wind speed and direction along that railway line, with the aim of developing a general procedure that can be applied to any railway line. This paper and its companion illustrate both the general procedure that has been developed and the main results of its application. The present paper specifically deals with the numerical modelling and wind simulations preliminary to the probabilistic assessment of the wind speed along the line, which is treated in the companion paper.