Numerical Study of Wind Loads on a High-Speed Train in the Center of Tornado

In addition to very high wind speed with relatively short duration, there exist several key attributes of the winds associated with tornadoes such as the vortex-like structure with changing wind direction and probable existence of a “nose shape” wind profile at the tangential direction. Accordingly, the maximum wind velocity with complex spatiotemporal features generally occurs near the ground, potentially exposing the high-speed train (HST) to higher wind loads compared to classic atmosphere boundary-layer wind structure consideration. However, very limited full-scale tornado data and research are available to identify and reliably establish a description of the complex flow structure together and field with the resulting effects on the HST. In this study, the wind velocity field and pressure field in a typical tornado-like vortex, and their propagation to load effects on the HST are carried out using high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD).