Cross wind and rollover risk on lightweight railway vehicles

The paper investigates the effects of lateral wind on different type of railway vehicles, comparing the cross wind behaviour on a high speed train and on a modern train used for urban and suburban transportation. The second is characterized by a low operating speed, but also by a low mass that increases the overturning risk. In order to compare the two trains in terms of cross wind response, two subsequent analyses have been performed: measurement of the force aerodynamic coefficients by means of wind tunnel tests on scale models and evaluation of the rollover risk by means of the definition of the Characteristic Wind Curve through a simplified numerical procedure, based on the static equilibrium, proposed by the TSI standard (three mass model).