RIS ID
110532
Abstract
By nature, ballast interacts with railway concrete sleepers in order to provide bearing support to track system. Most train-track dynamic models do not consider the degradation of ballast over time. In fact, the ballast degradation causes differential settlement and impact forces acting on partial and unsupported tracks. Furthermore, localised ballast breakages underneath railseat increase the likelihood of centrebound cracks in concrete sleepers due to the unbalanced support under sleepers. This paper presents a dynamic finite element model of a standard-gauge concrete sleeper in a track system, taking into account the tensionless nature of ballast support. The finite element model was calibrated using static and dynamic responses in the past. In this paper, the effects of centre-bound ballast support on the impact behaviours of sleepers are highlighted. In addition, it is the first to demonstrate the dynamic effects of sleeper length on the dynamic design deficiency in concrete sleepers. The outcome of this study will benefit the rail maintenance criteria of track resurfacing in order to restore ballast profile and appropriate sleeper/ballast interaction.
Publication Details
Kaewunruen, S., Ishida, T. & Remennikov, A. M. (2016). Impact analyses for negative flexural responses (hogging) in railway prestressed concrete sleepers. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 744 (1), 012101-1-012101-11. Southampton, United Kingdom 13th International Conference on Motion and Vibration Control (MOVIC 2016) and the 12th International Conference on Recent Advances in Structural Dynamics (RASD 2016) 4-6 July 2016