Dynamic Response of a Coupled Vehicle-Track System to Real Longitudinal Rail Profiles

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2010

Authors

Cecília Vale (Author) FEUP; Rui Calçada (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Proceedings of The Tenth International Conference on Computational Structures Technology

The Tenth International Conference on Computational Structures Technology

Valencia-Spain, 14 a 17 de Setembro de 2010

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Civil engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-5R7

Abstract (EN): As part of an ongoing research work, a numerical study is performed to better understand the vertical dynamic response of coupled vehicle-track systems to rail irregularities. To fulfil this objective, real track segments of the Portuguese Railway Northern Line with different longitudinal profiles are considered in the analysis. This approach is not common in track dynamic analysis. In general, random track profiles, defined for instance by Power Spectral Density Functions are used in the numerical calculations due to the difficulty in having access to real track profiles. Some conclusions may be drawn with the present study. The dynamic force and the vertical track displacement increase with the reduction of track quality and decrease after maintenance operations are performed; the dynamic force is lower than the respective limit proposed in the Technical Specification for Interoperability (TSI) for Infrastructure [1] if the standard deviation of the longitudinal level of the track is also inferior to the alert limit indicated in EN 13848-5 [2]. The results also show that an isolated defect on the track induces, for the same traffic, higher dynamic forces and track displacements in comparison to the ones due to a distributed track irregularity, depending on its peak value. In short, track irregularities have an important role in vehicle-track interaction response which should be considered in future research in order to evaluate relationships between track quality, vehicle speed and dynamic forces on tracks.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 18