Dynamic behavior of an embedded rail track coupled with a tram vehicle

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation into the dynamic behavior of an embedded rail track coupled with a tram vehicle in time domain. A new designed embedded rail track structure firstly introduced into the Chinese tramways is described and the results of vibration tests of the embedded rail track (ERT) and another fastened slab track (FST) are discussed. A three-dimensional (3D) dynamic model of a tram vehicle coupled with an embedded rail track was developed on the basis of the multi-body dynamics approach and the finite element method. In the model, the tram vehicle was modeled as a multi-body system. The embedded rail track was modeled as a two layer system consisting of two rails, filling material, slabs, and adjustment layer beneath slabs. The rails were treated as Timoshenko beams with continuous elastic supports, in which the modal superposition method was used to reduce the order of the partial differential equations of beams. Continuous viscoelastic elements were used to represent the filling material and rail pad that connecting the rails and the slabs. The concrete slabs were modelled using the 3D finite element method, while the modal superposition method was adopted to improve the computational efficiency. Uniformly viscoelastic elements were introduced to model the elastic layer beneath the concrete slabs. The proposed model was then applied to compare the dynamic response of the innovative embedded rail track with respect to a conventional fastened slab track. The numerical results indicate that the innovative embedded rail track has advantages over the fastened slab track for its potentialities to reduce the dynamic wheel/rail force, the vibration level and deformation of the track parts, and the track defects and damages.