Dynamic Analysis of High Speed Railway Traffic Loads on Ballasted Track

This paper reports the studies carried out to develop and calibrate the optimal models for the dynamic analysis of high speed railway traffic loads on ballasted track. In particular, a quarter bogie model for the vehicle, rail-wheel contact with Lagrangian multiplier method, and 2D spatial discretization were selected as the optimal decisions. Furthermore, the 3D model of coupled vehicle track also has been developed to contrast the results obtained in the 2D model. The calculations were carried out in the time domain and envelopes of relevant results were obtained for several track profiles and speed ranges. Distributed elevation irregularities were generated based on power spectral density (PSD) distributions. The results obtained include the wheel-rail contact forces, dynamic loads transmitted to track structure by railpads. The latter loads are relevant for the purpose of evaluating the performance of the infrastructure.