Operating Environment

The vehicle operating environment description typically contains information related to track and wayside configuration, environmental conditions (weather), and particular local requirements. Please refer to "General Requirements" for track and wayside information, and development of clearance envelopes.

Standard: ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook Purpose: This reference provides a wide variety of HVAC related design data. In this application, it is mostly used for the purposes of defining local and regional weather data, (Table 1A, and 1B, Climactic Conditions for the United States). Criteria: Specify environmental design criteria, cite ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook as the accepted source of; minimum/maximum/average values for temperature (wet & dry bulb), precipitation/rainfall, visibility/fog, wind/storm conditions, etc. This can be done either annually, or seasonally as appropriate for the specific climate. Usage: ... from the ASHRAE Handbook, Fundamentals, Weather Data, Table 1A, and 1B, Climactic Conditions for the United States.