Effect of Crosswind on Derailment of Railway Vehicles Running on Curved Track at Low Speed

Owing to the lightening of railway vehicles and increased operation speeds, the reduction of running safety in the presence of crosswind is becoming an important problem. In particular, the running safety tends to decrease when vehicles run on curved track. When a crosswind acts on a vehicle negotiating a curve from the outer side, flange climbing can occur. In this study, a full-vehicle model was constructed using the multi-body simulation software SIMPACK, and a simulation of a bogie vehicle with two-axle trucks negotiating a curve was carried out to examine the running safety under the condition where a crosswind acts on the vehicle from the outer side of the curve. As a result, it was verified that the derailment coefficient of the first wheelset becomes large in the exit transition curve and the coefficient of the third wheelset does in the entrance transition curve, and this trend becomes pronounced at low operation speeds in the presence of a stronger crosswind. It was also shown that the critical derailment coefficients obtained by modified Nadal’s formula considering the effect of attack angle become close to the actual derailment coefficients at the timing that flange climbing occurs.