COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BALLASTLESS TRACK SYSTEM DESIGN USING ANALYTICAL AND NUMERICAL TOOLS

Abstract

Railways is becoming faster, with high speed running vehicles exerting wheel loads on tracks could become critical for track quality and the overall lifecycle. To cope with such high loads state of the art ballastless track systems could be a long term solution and to increase its acceptance under tight economic boundary conditions, Finite Element Modeling (FEM) is a powerful tool optimize the design. This study examines the reliability and verification of FE Models with analytical tools. Firstly, using analytical tools, the Zimmermann and the Westergaard methods, continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) slab with various cracking distances are designed followed by numerical design and analysis. Design includes both traffic and temperature loadings. Comparative design analysis is then carried out between analytical and numerical tool to evaluate the impact of input parameters on each of the tools. The finite element package SOFiSTiK is used to model ballastless track design. The verification of FE- model is also done based on calibrations, results and boundary conditions to check reliability, behavior and working. Lastly author gives some guidelines for the model verification.