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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 105
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Edited by:
Paper 17

A Numerical Study on the Improvement of Track Transitions using Modifying Superstructure Elements

R. Sañudo1, V.L. Markine2 and L. Dell'Olio1

1Department of Transport and Technology of Projects and Process, University of Cantabria, Spain
2Department Road and Railway Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
, "A Numerical Study on the Improvement of Track Transitions using Modifying Superstructure Elements", in , (Editors), "Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 17, 2014. doi:10.4203/ccp.105.17
Keywords: high speed, track transition, stiffness, superstructure, rails, sleepers.

Summary
A great problem of the Spanish high speed railways continues to be the track transitions between embankments and engineering structures. The dynamic forces in these areas are increased causing the high costs of the railway infrastructure maintenance.

In the framework of the DINATRANS project it has been possible to study what happens in the track transitions and to try to modify the track structure. The aim of the track modifications was to create a more gradual rail support transition on both sides of the structure.

The goal of the study, described in this paper, was to solve the problem of increasing dynamic forces in transition areas by combining different superstructure configurations. A number of track transition models have been developed and analysed numerically using the finite element software DARTS_NL (developed at TU Delft). The dynamic train-track interaction in transition zones with high and low vertical stiffness has been simulated and the effects of various different track design modifications have been analysed.

The results have shown that the rail displacement and ballast stresses in the transition zone can be significantly reduced by making small changes in the track superstructure elements (rails and sleepers). The results obtained (including the best modification) are presented and discussed.

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