Effects of Design Parameters on Curved Ballasted Track
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Train and track interactions during services normally generate substantial forces on railway
tracks. Such forces are transient by nature and of relatively large magnitude. There has been
small literature showing of the typical responses for the loading conditions on the curved section
of railway track structures, in particular, lateral and vertical loads. This paper presents a response
of the curved section of a ballasted railway track structure for different parameters of track and
train.
In this research, the response of curved ballasted track components as a function of speed, cant
and curvature is investigated using numerical modeling. Curved and straight section of ballasted
railway track is modeled using the finite element approach. The paper mainly focuses on
studying the effect of speed, cant as well as curvature on the values of deformation/displacement
of the components of the track . Taking into account a model representing the train load, the
model forms a dynamic analysis and a non-linear quasi-static analysis of track structures using
Finite Element Modeling method with the use of commercially available software ABAQUS.
The main results that are used to investigate the effect of speed, cant and curvature are vertical
and lateral rail deflection, vertical and lateral sleeper displacement and vertical and lateral
subgrade displacement
Hertz analytical method was used to assess the axle load and train speed effect based on the results of
calculated contact pressure and penetration depths for a selected straight section where the half-space
assumption is valid.
Results show that with increasing train speed track deflection grow higher. It is observed that, for
example, in a long-term the outer rail response for a 350 meter radius ballasted track there is
0.3536 mm lateral deflection increase for every Km/hr increase of train speed.
It is recommended to do a feed-back loop for the long-term behavior of the track.
Description
Keywords
Sleeper displacement, curved track section, rail deflection, subgrade displacement, speed, cant, curvature