Influence of some vehicle and track parameters on the environmental vibrations induced by railway traffic

A study is performed on the influence of some typical railway vehicle and track parameters on the level of ground vibrations induced in the neighbourhood. The results are obtained from a previously validated simulation framework considering in a first step the vehicle/track subsystem and, in a second step, the response of the soil to the forces resulting from the first analysis. The vehicle is reduced to a simple vertical 3-dof model, corresponding to the superposition of the wheelset, the bogie and the car body. The rail is modelled as a succession of beam elements elastically supported by the sleepers, lying themselves on a flexible foundation representing the ballast and the subgrade. The connection between the wheels and the rails is realised through a non-linear Hertzian contact. The soil motion is obtained from a finite/infinite element model. The investigated vehicle parameters are its type (urban, high speed, freight, etc.) and its speed. For the track, the rail flexural stiffness, the railpad stiffness, the spacing between sleepers and the rail and sleeper masses are considered. In all cases, the parameter value range is defined from a bibliographic browsing. At the end, the paper proposes a table summarising the influence of each studied parameter on three indicators: the vehicle acceleration, the rail velocity and the soil velocity. It namely turns out that the vehicle has a serious influence on the vibration level and should be considered in prediction models.     

Investigating the influence of soil properties on railway traffic vibration using a numerical model

This paper presents the influence of dynamic and geometrical soil parameters on the propagation of ground vibrations induced by external loads. The proposed approach is based on a three-dimensional model, focusing on realistic excitation sources like impulse loads and moving railway vehicles. For the latter, a complete vehicle/track model is developed. The simulation is performed in time domain, offering an interesting approach, compared with classic cyclic analyses. The ground is modelled initially as an elastic homogeneous half-space and additionally as a layered half-space. First, the effect of homogeneous soil properties on ground vibration is analysed. Soil stratification is then taken into account, using various configurations. Analysis reveals that as receiver distance increases ground wave reflection in a layered ground plays an important role in the reduction of ground surface motion. This effect is magnified when the phase velocity wavelength becomes large compared with the depth of the surface layer.     

Theoretical and experimental excitation force spectra for railway-induced ground vibration: vehicle–track–soil interaction,irregularities and soil measurements

Excitation force spectra are necessary for a realistic prediction of railway-induced ground vibration. The excitation forces cause the ground vibration and they are themselves a result of irregularities passed by the train. The methods of the related analyses – the wavenumber integration for the wave propagation in homogeneous or layered soils, the combined finite-element boundary-element method for the vehicle–track–soil interaction – have already been presented and are the base for the advanced topic of this contribution. This contribution determines excitation force spectra of railway traffic by two completely different methods. The forward analysis starts with vehicle, track and soil irregularities, which are taken from literature and axle-box measurements, calculates the vehicle–track interaction and gets theoretical force spectra as the result. The second method is a backward analysis from the measured ground vibration of railway traffic. A calculated or measured transfer function of the soil is used to determine the excitation force spectrum of the train. A number of measurements of different soils and different trains with different speeds are analysed in that way. Forward and backward analysis yield the same approximate force spectra with values around 1 kN for each axle and third of octave.     

Application of the structural articulation method to dynamic impact loading of railway bridges – a case study

This article demonstrates a practical application of the structural articulation method. An existing prototype railway bridge was selected to compare our new method with the industry codes of practice. The response history and dynamic increment of the bridge were investigated through a variety of methods: lump sum mass analysis (LSMA) and suspension system analysis (SSA) for a single-axle force, and SSA for multi-axle forces. We considered both a local irregularity and a global sinusoidal irregularity. The dynamic impact load induced by either form of track irregularity increases approximately linearly with the vehicle speed up to a certain point, then tends to decrease gradually. This behaviour reveals that the dynamic impact load induced by track irregularities is dominated by the resonance of the bridge. If a bridge must support multiple axles, or if an especially accurate dynamic impact factor is required for safety reasons, then multi-axle SSA is recommended because this approach is the most accurate and likely to produce a weaker response than single-axle analysis. The random irregularity is generated by the stochastic track irregularity process. It is found that the dynamic impact load induced by the random irregularity is negligible, compared with the deterministic irregularity.     

Experimental investigations on the damping effect due to passengers on flexural vibrations of railway vehicle carbody and basic studies on the mimicry of the effect with simple substitutions

The effect of passengers on a railway vehicle is usually considered as additional mass in designing a carbody. However, previous studies by means of stationary excitation tests or running tests using actual vehicles indicate that passengers behave not as mass but as damping. In this paper, the authors examined the passengers' damping effect under controlled excitation conditions on a roller rig through a series of excitation tests using a commuter-type vehicle. Large and multi-modal reductions of flexural vibrations of the carbody were observed when passengers existed. Influences of the number of passengers, distributions and postures of passengers were investigated. The authors also tried to mimic the damping effect by passengers using flexible tanks filled with fluids. Three kinds of fluids which have different viscosities have been tested. As a result of the excitation tests, good vibration reduction effects were observed by applying those tanks, and it has been found that the flexible tanks filled with fluids bring about vibration reduction effect (including multi-modal reduction) which is equal to or rather better than the case of similar mass of passengers in the carbody; the difference of viscosity gave little affect on the damping abilities. From these measurement results, a possibility of realising effective damping devices against flexural vibrations of railway vehicle carbodies representing passengers damping effect, in a simple, economical and environmental friendly way, has been demonstrated.     

On vehicle/track impact at connection between a floating slab and ballasted track and floating slab track's effectiveness of force isolation

When a vehicle runs over the connection between a floating slab track (FST) and ballasted track, wheel/rail impact may occur because of the stiffness difference in the two kinds of track, and thus a transition sector is usually included at the connection to smoothen the stiffness change. This phenomenon is studied by numerical simulation using a time-domain model for an idealised case without such a transition to determine whether it is actually necessary. Calculation results show that the wheel/rail impact load is moderate for a light FST and increases with the vehicle speed or decreasing the natural frequency of the FST. From simulation the wheel/rail parametric excitation is observed, as a result of variation in the stiffness of the FST with the period of the single slab length. The wheel/rail load due to the parametric excitation also increases with the vehicle speed. In addition, good performance of vibration isolation can be seen for the FST in terms of the force transmitted to the infrastructure.     

Modelling,simulation and evaluation of ground vibration caused by rail vehicles*

ABSTRACT

There is a great need to develop rail networks over long distances and within cities as more sustainable transport options. However, noise and vibration are seen as a negative environmental consequence. Compared with airborne noise, the related problem of ground vibration is much more complex. The properties of the ground vary significantly from one location to another. There is no common assessment criterion or measurement quantity and no equivalent to the noise maps. Ground-borne vibration is transmitted into buildings and perceived either as feelable whole-body vibration or as low frequency noise; it can also affect sensitive equipment but it is generally at a level that is too low to cause structural or cosmetic damage to buildings. A review is given of evaluation criteria for both feelable vibration and ground-borne noise, empirical and numerical prediction methods, the main vehicle and track parameters that can affect the vibration levels and a range of possible mitigation methods.     

Influence of uneven rail irregularities on the dynamic response of the railway track using a three-dimensional model of the vehicle–track system

A mathematical model of the vehicle–track interaction is developed to investigate the coupled behaviour of vehicle–track system, in the presence of uneven irregularities at left/right rails. The railway vehicle is simplified as a 3D multi-rigid-body model, and the track is treated as the two parallel beams on a layered discrete support system. Besides the car-body, the bogies and the wheel sets, the sleepers are assumed to have roll degree of freedom, in order to simulate the in-plane rotation of the components. The wheel–rail interface is treated using a nonlinear Hertzian contact model, coupling the mathematical equations of the vehicle–track systems. The dynamic interaction of the entire system is numerically studied in time domain, employing Newmark's integration method. The track irregularity spectra of both the left/right rails are taken into account, as the inputs of dynamic excitations. The dynamic responses of the track system induced by such irregularities are obtained, particularly in terms of the vertical (bounce) and roll displacements. The numerical model of the present research is validated using several benchmark models reported in the literature, for both the smooth and unsmooth track conditions. Four sample profiles of the measured rail irregularities are considered as the case studies of excitation sources, examining their influences on the dynamic behaviour of the coupled system. The results of numerical simulations demonstrate that the motion of track system is significantly influenced by the presence of uneven irregularities in left/right rails. Dynamic response of the sleepers in the roll direction becomes more sensitive to the rail irregularities, as the unevenness severity of the parallel profiles (quantitative difference between left and right rail spectra) is increased. The severe geometric deformation of the track in the bounce–pitch–roll directions is mainly related to such profile unevenness (cross-level) in left/right rails.     

Stochastic vibration of the vehicle–bridge system subject to non-uniform ground motions

A study of a train moving along a cable-stayed bridge is performed by considering both the stationary track irregularity and a non-stationary earthquake. A detailed bridge model with 3972 degrees of freedom is established while the train model consists of two locomotives and eight carriages. The equations of motion of the coupled system are obtained by using the displacement continuous condition at the contact, with track irregularities. The earthquake is assumed to occur once the train has entered the bridge. The pseudo-excitation method is used to find the random responses of the coupled system, and the results indicate that the effect of the earthquake is much greater than that of the track irregularities. The paper discusses the influence of the intensity of the earthquake, the wave propagation velocity, the speed of the train, and the dynamic interaction between the vehicles and the bridge.     

Dynamics of the railway track and the underlying soil: the boundary-element solution,theoretical results and their experimental verification

A combined finite-element boundary-element method is presented in detail to calculate the dynamic interaction of the railway track and the underlying soil. A number of results are shown for ballasted and slab track, demonstrating the influence of the stiffness of the soil and the rail pads on the vertical compliance of the track. The compliance of the track is combined with a simple model of the vehicle giving the transfer function of vehicle–track interaction. An experimental verification of the theoretical results is achieved by harmonic and impulse excitation with and without static (train-) load and by combined measurements of train–track–soil interaction. A clear vehicle–track resonance is found for the slab track with elastic rail pads and for higher frequencies at highspeed traffic, the dynamic axle loads due to sleeper passage are reduced.     

Wear simulation for the centre plate arrangement of a freight car

The bodies of many railway freight cars in many countries of the world are coupled to the running gear by means of a body centre plate that makes a friction pair with a centre bowl. During motion, the bogie is rotated and moved with respect to the car body. This leads to wear on the contact surfaces. Lubrication is inexpedient in this case because the friction forces damp the vibrations (so-called bogie hunting) during motion. Usually, centre plates exhibit noticeable wear after two years of operation. Reducing wear requires knowing details of the wear process which, in turn, requires computer simulation of freight car motion for an operation period of 10–15 years. The purpose of this paper is to develop a universal method for wear simulation of friction pairs that could be used, in particular, for the centre plate of a freight car.     

Influence of polygonal wear of railway wheels on the wheel set axle stress

The coupled vehicle/track dynamic model with the flexible wheel set was developed to investigate the effects of polygonal wear on the dynamic stresses of the wheel set axle. In the model, the railway vehicle was modelled by the rigid multibody dynamics. The wheel set was established by the finite element method to analyse the high-frequency oscillation and dynamic stress of wheel set axle induced by the polygonal wear based on the modal stress recovery method. The slab track model was taken into account in which the rail was described by the Timoshenko beam and the three-dimensional solid finite element was employed to establish the concrete slab. Furthermore, the modal superposition method was adopted to calculate the dynamic response of the track. The wheel/rail normal forces and the tangent forces were, respectively, determined by the Hertz nonlinear contact theory and the Shen–Hedrick–Elkins model. Using the coupled vehicle/track dynamic model, the dynamic stresses of wheel set axle with consideration of the ideal polygonal wear and measured polygonal wear were investigated. The results show that the amplitude of wheel/rail normal forces and the dynamic stress of wheel set axle increase as the vehicle speeds rise. Moreover, the impact loads induced by the polygonal wear could excite the resonance of wheel set axle. In the resonance region, the amplitude of the dynamic stress for the wheel set axle would increase considerably comparing with the normal conditions.     

Dynamics of the railway track and the underlying soil: the boundary-element solution, theoretical results and their experimental verification

A combined finite-element boundary-element method is presented in detail to calculate the dynamic interaction of the railway track and the underlying soil. A number of results are shown for ballasted and slab track, demonstrating the influence of the stiffness of the soil and the rail pads on the vertical compliance of the track. The compliance of the track is combined with a simple model of the vehicle giving the transfer function of vehicle-track interaction. An experimental verification of the theoretical results is achieved by harmonic and impulse excitation with and without static (train-) load and by combined measurements of train-track-soil interaction. A clear vehicle-track resonance is found for the slab track with elastic rail pads and for higher frequencies at highspeed traffic, the dynamic axle loads due to sleeper passage are reduced.     

大轴重重载铁路简支梁桥梁轨相互作用研究

为探明大轴重重载铁路简支梁桥上无缝线路钢轨纵向应力和墩顶水平力的分布规律,以我国在建的30t轴重重载铁路双线32m简支T梁为例进行梁轨相互作用分析。采用ANSYS建立多跨重载简支梁桥-无缝线路一体化分析模型(桥梁与轨道的非线性连接采用非线性杆单元模拟),研究温度和活载作用下钢轨纵向应力与墩顶水平力的分布特点,分析简支梁跨数对纵向力分布的影响。在此基础上,探讨检算钢轨应力时,挠曲力与制动力组合方式的合理性。分析表明:重载铁路简支梁桥上无缝线路钢轨所受纵向应力普遍比客货共线铁路大9.8%~31%;简支梁跨数增加至8跨时,钢轨和墩顶的受力逐渐趋近于稳定;在检算墩顶水平力时,采用挠曲力、制动力耦合的方式进行计算较为安全。