Dynamic Analysis of High Speed Railway Traffic Loads on Ballast and Slab Tracks

The objective of this work is to develop adequate and efficient models for calculation of vertical dynamic traffic load effects on railway track infrastructures, and applications for evaluating the comparative performance of ballast and slab track designs. The calculations are based on dynamic finite element models with direct time integration and contact algorithms between wheel and rail in order to consider the rail-car interaction. For capturing the dynamic effects is an adequate representation of irregularities of the track. The 2D spatial discretization were selected as the optimal decisions. The results obtained include wheel-rail contact forces, forces transmitted to the bogie by primary suspension and forces transmitted to the infrastructure (sleeper or slab) by the railpads.