A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING THE SAFE TEMPERATURE IN CONTINUOUS WELDED RAIL TRACKS

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2013

Authors

Carvalho, J (Author) Other; Delgado, J (Author) FEUP; Calcada, R (Author) FEUP; Delgado, R (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics

Vol. 13

Final page: 1350016

ISSN: 0219-4554

Publisher: World Scientific

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 11 Citations

Scopus - 14 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Civil engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-005-2RX

DOI: 10.1142/s0219455413500168

Abstract (EN): The use of continuous welded rails (CWR) is increasingly common and is particularly important when it comes to high-speed ballasted tracks. As the longitudinal displacements are restricted in CWR tracks, a considerable rise in temperature induces compressive stresses in the rails that can lead to track buckling. Given the nonlinear behavior of the ballast, usually represented by a linear plastic model, the problem of snap-through buckling may occur, for which only a few nonlinear analysis methods can trace the full response of the track structure. However, these methods fail to yield convergent solutions for problems with thermal loads when implemented in their conventional algorithm. For this reason, a new methodology is presented allowing the calculation of the safe temperature. In addition, some analytical results are also derived for comparison with the numerical results, obtained using three-dimensional finite element beam models provided by ANSYS.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 21