• International Journal of Railway
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.46-56
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• 2014

The superstructure of the railway track undertakes the forces that develop during train passage and distributes them towards its seating. The track panel plays a key role in terms of load distribution, while at the same time it maintains the geometrical distance between the rails. The substructure and ballast undergo residual deformations under high stresses that contribute to the deterioration of the so-called geometry of the track. The track stiffness is the primary contributing factor to the amount of the stresses that develop on the substructure and is directly influenced by the fastening resilience. Four methods from the international literature are used in this paper to calculate the loads and stresses on the track substructure and the results are compared and discussed. A parametric investigation of the stresses that develop on the substructure of different types of railway tracks (i.e. balastless vs ballasted) is performed and the results are presented as a function of the total static track stiffness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제61권6호
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• pp.775-784
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• 2017

This study is devoted to developing many new substructure models for ballasted railway track by using the pyramid model philosophy. As the effect of railway embankment has been less considered in the previous studies in the field of vehicle/track interaction, so the present study develops the pyramid models in the presence of railway embankment and implements them in vehicle/track interaction dynamic analyses. Considering a moving car body as multi bodies with 10 degrees of freedom and the ballasted track including rail, sleeper, ballast, subgrade and embankment, two categories of numerical analyses are performed by considering the new substructure systems including type A (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the ballast layer) or type B (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the subgrade layer). A comprehensive sensitivity analyses are performed on effective parameters such as ballast height, sleepers spacing and sleeper width. The results indicate that the stiffness of subgrade, embankment and foundation increased by increasing the ballast height. Also, by increasing the ballast height, rail and ballast vertical displacement decreased.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.1085-1101
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• 2015

Changes in substructure conditions, such as ballast fouling and subgrade settlement may cause the railway quality deterioration, including the differential geometry of the rails. The objective of this study is to develop and apply a hybrid cone penetrometer (HCP) to characterize the railway substructure. The HCP consists of an outer rod and an inner mini cone, which can dynamically and statically penetrate the ballast and the subgrade, respectively. An accelerometer and four strain gauges are installed at the head of the outer rod and four strain gauges are attached at the tip of the inner mini cone. In the ballast, the outer rod provides a dynamic cone penetration index (DCPI) and the corrected DCPI (CDCPI) with the energy transferred into the rod head. Then, the inner mini cone is pushed to estimate the strength of the subgrade from the cone tip resistance. Laboratory application tests are performed on the specimen, which is prepared with gravel and sandy soil. In addition, the HCP is applied in the field and compared with the standard dynamic cone penetration test. The results from the laboratory and the field tests show that the cone tip resistance is inversely proportional to the CDCPI. Furthermore, in the subgrade, the HCP produces a high-resolution profile of the cone tip resistance and a profile of the CDCPI in the ballast. This study suggests that the dynamic and static penetration tests using the HCP may be useful for characterizing the railway substructure.

• International Journal of Railway
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• 제6권2호
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• pp.59-63
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of geogrid for conventional ballasted track and asphalt concrete underlayment track using PLAXIS finite element program. Geogrid element was modeled at various locations that include subballast/subgrade, subballast/ballast interfaces, middle of the ballast, and one-third depth of the ballast. The results revealed that the effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement appeared to be larger for ballasted track structure compared to asphalt concrete underlayment track. Particularly, in case of installing geogrid at one-third depth of ballast layer in a conventional ballasted track, the most effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement was achieved. The influence of geogrid axial stiffness on track substructure response was not clear to conclude. Further validations using a discrete element method along with experimental investigation are considered as a future study. The effect of asphalt concrete layer modulus was evaluated. The results exhibited that higher layer modulus seems to be effective in controlling displacement and strain of track substructure. However it also yields slightly higher stresses within track substructure. It infers that further validations are required to come up with optimum asphalt concrete mixture design to meet economical and functional criteria.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 2005년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.621-626
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• 2005

A major part of permanent way maintenance effort is justified by inadequacies in the track substructure and in particular in drainage conditions, which need to be put right across the entire network. In most cases nowadays, improvements of the substructure can be carried out on rail to a high standard of quality. However, this entails substantial movements of material for the removal of spoil and provision of new material. In the future, recycling of old material on site, and use of geosynthetics, will be necessary to help considerably reduce this volume.

• 한국지반공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지반공학회 2005년도 춘계 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.346-353
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• 2005

Track substructure(ballast, subgrade) should have sufficient strength and adequate stiffness to fully support track superstructure(rail, fastener, sleeper). Vertical support stiffness of track comes from the sufficient thickness, adequate strength and stiffness of material of substructure layers. Since the vertical support stiffness of track substructure is closely related with the track geometry, the evaluation of the stiffness is very important to understand the track states. This paper introduces the system, which are composed of Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR), Portable Ballast Sampler(PBS), and Light Falling Weight Deflectometer(LFWD), to evaluate substructure condition and summarizes the field test results performed with the reliable system.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 2003년도 추계학술대회 논문집(III)
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• pp.275-280
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• 2003

The Korean high speed train is designed to run at very high speed such as 350km/h. At this time, ballast in roadbed is dispersed by high speed air flow and this hits the substructure of the train. It becomes the factor of damaging the train. To investigate the main factor and possibility of ballast dispersion, the substructure flow is measured by Kiel-Probe Array System at G7 train experiment. And the wind tunnel experiment is performed with ballast in our research. Also CFD analysis is performed by assuming that the flow field is 2D and using simple shaped cross-tie and flat substructure of the train. By comparing the experimental results and CFD analysis, the accuracy of the analysis is checked. They will become the basic research data for the analysis and optimization of train substructure to prevent the ballast dispersion.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 2011년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.697-706
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• 2011

There are more than 800 railway steel plate girder bridges which are in use and the total length is approximately 50 km. Among these, it shall be pointed out that non-ballast rail systems which lay on wood sleepers are the most critical members. To strengthen this type of structures, mainly two methods have been applied. The first one is the most typical method which is to replace the girders with slab girder system or steel composite girders and to add ballast. It is not uncommon that the construction cost of substructure is more than ten time higher than that of superstructures and even in this case, the structural uncertainty for the substructures is not diminished. To resolve above mentioned problems, new method was developed to rehabilitate railway steel girder bridge by adding PC-slab using transport equipment. Using this method, substructure strengthen is rarely required because the additional weight to the bridge superstructure is only up to 1.0t/m. Also it was possible to save the construction cost by reducing construction duration and by simplifying the construction process. Experimental construction was performed for Jewon bridge and measurements were performed before and after construction to verify the bridge capacity.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 2004년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.1113-1118
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• 2004

Ballasted track is constructed in consideration of the maintenance. The application time and frequency of MTT(Multiple Tie Tamper) and BS(Ballast Cleaner) depend on track geometry measurements. This paper presents the application of Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR), Falling Weight Deflectometer(FWD), and Portable Ballast Sampler (PBS) to evaluate the effects of track geometry due to substructure deterioration and to build a reliable substructure evaluation system.

• 한국철도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국철도학회 1999년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.463-470
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• 1999

In this paper, a numerical method for evaluating the efficiency of vibration reduction of substructure under slab track is developed for optimal design of floating slab track. The equation of motion for train and track interaction system is derived by applying compatibility condition at the contact points between wheels and rails. The train is modelled by 3-masses system and the track by continuous support beam system. Numerical analyses are carried out to investigate the effect of train speed, stiffness and damping of slab-pad, and track irregularity upon vibration reduction in substructure under the track.