• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2006.11b
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• pp.1332-1339
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• 2006

Hanging sleepers, which are not fully supported between the sleepers and the ballast, could cause large dynamic forces especially on high speed ballasted track. The dynamic forces resulting from insufficient supporting forces may badly affect the running stability and safety of train. These also accelerate track irregularities and deteriorate track components rapidly. Consequently, the hanging sleepers will lead to sharp increases in track maintenance cost. This paper introduces a rapid and easy method to detect hanging sleepers with portable light falling weight deflectometer (LFWD) and summarizes the results of experiments performed at the high speed ballasted track.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.757-769
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• 2016

Rail support modulus is an important parameter for analysis and design of ballasted railway tracks. One of the challenges in track stiffness assessment is its dynamic nature under the moving trains which differs it from the case of standing trains. So the present study is allocated to establish a relation between the dynamic and static stiffness of ballasted tracks via field measurements. In this regard, two different sites of ballasted tracks with wooden and concrete sleepers were selected and the static and dynamic stiffness were measured based on Talbot - Wasiutynski method. In this matter, the selected tracks were loaded by two heavy and light car bodies for standing and moving conditions and consequently the deflection basins were evaluated in both sites. Knowing the deflection basins respect to light and heavy loading conditions, both of static and dynamic stiffness values were extracted. Finally two definite relations were obtained for ballasted tracks with wooded and concrete sleepers.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1126-1131
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• 2007

In 1st Phase Kyeong-Bu High-Speed Line, to lessen the impact in the transition zone between concrete slab track(in tunnel) and ballasted track(on embankment), the ballast bonding method has been adopted. However, in this area, in the beginning of the operation, unsupported sleepers are found, and the track deterioration and damage of concrete sleepers have occurred. In this paper, the status and causes of unsupported sleepers are discussed and several repair measures are proposed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.6D
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• pp.867-874
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• 2011

The ballast abrasion occurs on the ballasted track upon bridges more than soil roadbed because the track vibration occurs a lot in the ballasted track upon bridges due to girder vibration when a train's weight is loaded onto track even though the identical ballast is used. The phenomena of mud pumping especially, which occurs when drainage is not properly secured for heavy rain, leads to the increase of maintenance work load and the decline of ride comfort. The ballast thickness range in domestic railroad construction rule is uniformly set up according to the design speed of railroad and passing tonnage of train without considering field conditions which is considered in foreign railroad companies. The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of vibration decrease by measuring the acceleration, displacement and ride comfort of ballasted track with the change of ballast thickness on the ballast tracked bridges and to suggest the optimal height of ballast on the Yocheon Bridge built for the test in Honam Line.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.2563-2566
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• 2011

Government has presented a guideline for the calculation of carbon emission with infrastructures in 2011, which aims to manage the GHG(greenhouse gas) emission of construction sector. Generally, the main emission sources of construction works are divided into the fuel consumption of equipments and the use of materials. This study investigated the characteristics of GHG emission with the use of equipments under the construction of railroad track. Track types are classified into ballasted track and concrete track. As a result, the specific GHG emission on the construction of ballasted track at the A line was 39.53 ton $CO_{2e}/km$ and concrete track was 25.54 ton $CO_{2e}/km$. Ballasted track showed higher specific GHG emission than concrete track because of the additional construction works by the use of gravels. In future, it is necessary to study the comparison of GHG emissions with construction methods including the use of materials. Based on these results, the low carbon construction of railroad will be established continuously.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 2012

Superimposition of vertical and transition curves is not allowed for all types of tracks in Korean regulation of railway construction. However, this criterion has been established on the basis of difficulty of maintenance of the ballasted track. Comparing with the ballasted track, the concrete slab track has the advantage of maintenance and structural, which allows the superimposition of vertical and transition curves when it satisfies the criteria of running safety and riding comfort. In this study, running safety, ride comforts and track acting forces were analyzed and compared by numerical analysis using VAMPIRE program when the vertical and transition curves are superimposed for the ballasted track as well as the concrete slab track. From the analysis results, it was found that running safety, riding comforts and track acting forces in case of superimposition of vertical and transition curves for the both tracks meet all of the criteria. Therefore, although superimposition of vertical and transition curves for the ballasted track is not allowed because of a lot of maintenance works, it can be applied to the concrete slab track considering the advantage of maintenance and structural safety.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.249-255
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• 2010

Ballasted track is under the circumstance of repetition of deterioration and recovery. Track deterioration is presented as track irregularity or settlement, and dynamic force subjected to track is one of major cause of the deterioration. The dynamic force is determined from the dynamic interaction between track and vehicle. Rail-pad stiffness is one of the factor affects track dynamic property. In this study, the relationship between rail-pad stiffness and track settlement was investigated. Dynamic forces according to various rail-pad stiffness was obtained from the dynamic vehicle-track interaction analysis using DARTS-NL. Track settlement was calculated by substitution the dynamic forces into various formulas for track settlement. From the result of analysis, it was known that the track settlement is increased about 6% when the rail-pad stiffness rise about twice. And this result leads that there is only a little relationship between rail-pad stiffness and track settlement.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.110-121
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• 2016

In the decision-making, such as selection of structure, construction method, or time and scheme of maintenance, the evaluation of life-cycle cost(LCC) is of great importance. The maintenance cost occupy a large portion of the LCC of the railway track as well as the initial construction cost. Futhermore, the proportion of the maintenance cost is much higher in the ballasted track. Thus, the importance of the LCC evaluation is higher than in any other engineering structures. In this study, a LCC model that can consider various design parameters such as the type of track structure, annual traffic volume, axle load, train speed, and proportion of curve sections and engineering structures has been developed. Fundamental data for calculating costs also have been presented. Based on the model and data proposed, the trends in the variation of LCC according to the design parameters were examined and the most important design parameters in the LCC analysis of railway track were investigated. The results show that the proportion of renewal and operational costs is much higher in the ballasted track than in the concrete track, and the annual traffic volume and ballast taming period are most significant factors on the LCC of the ballasted track. On the contrary, it is revealed that the proportion of the initial construction costs in the concrete track is much higher, and the LCC of the concrete track is less sensitive to the traffic volume, train speed, and axle load.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.438-443
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• 2007

In the recent railway construction, the concrete slab track is highlighted as the maintenance-free track and the main stream is moving from ballasted track to concrete slab track. However, in spite of many merits of concrete slab track, the higher noise generated from the concrete slab track is a troublesome question to solve and, by this reason, many studies on noise reduction of concrete slab track are carried out. The railway noise can be classified into the reflection noise emitted from wheel/rail contact and the structure-borne noise transmitted through railway structures. In this presentation, we would like to introduce an example of the successful reduction of structure-borne noise at track retrofitting to maintenance-free concrete slab track in elevated Changdong Station which was built with ballasted track on Rahmen structure.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1616-1623
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• 2011

The concrete track was applied for Gyungbu 2nd phase high_speed railroad line as a basic track structure. Two track structures, ballasted track and non_ballasted concrete track, have a different train load transfer mechanisms. However, it's rare to see about research results related with it. So, to understand dynamic response characteristics of the concrete track and roadbed, we measured accelerations of carbody and bogie, vertical and lateral load, stress and displacement of rail, and earth pressures of subgrade at ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$k930 station of Gyungbu high_speed line during speed up tests before opening it. Based on these measured results, we could evaluate the level of dynamic responses of the track quantitatively.