A pilot study of the wind speed along the Rome-Naples HS/HC railway line. Part 2-Probabilistic analyses and methodology assessment

The safety of railway operations 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 such a 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 represents the logical prosecution of a companion paper where numerical simulations have been carried out of the wind fields along the line. These results are used together with a large amount of data measured by neighbouring meteorological stations in order to establish a probabilistic model of the wind speed and direction along the line. Such model provides a full representation of the wind climate and hazard of the railway line, and represents the basic step towards the development of a full risk analysis. Preliminary evaluations are also reported in order to assess the robustness and reliability of the methodology applied and the results obtained. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.