Recent developments in the wind resistance of railway bridges in China

In the past 30 years, the wind resistance of railway bridges has undergone great success with the efforts from the whole research community under the rapid developments of high-speed railways in China. The present paper thus aims to illustrate this success and provide our personal perspectives for future studies. The wind resistance of railway bridges is a new branch of bridge wind engineering. Thus, we first trace the wind-induced collapse of 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge in America and the wind resistant design of Maogang Bridge in China. Then, the developments of bridge wind engineering community in China and its in-service, newly constructed, and under construction test facilities are introduced. Referring to the “Alan G. Davenport Wind Loading Chain”, the recent developments are separately demonstrated in the following five aspects: wind properties, wind loads, bridge dynamic characteristics, wind-induced vibrations, and prevention and control technologies. Based on the above research results, the first wind resistance specification for railway bridges has been published and implemented. Finally, a non-comprehensively perspective on the wind resistance of railway bridges is provided with the aim to trigger more advanced improvements in this research area.