Effect of sleeper bottom texture on lateral resistance with discrete element modelling

Effect of sleeper bottom texture on lateral resistance with discrete element modelling

Guo, Y. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Fu, Hao (University of Birmingham)
Qian, Yu (University of South Carolina)
Markine, V.L. (TU Delft Railway Engineering)
Jing, Guoqing (Beijing Jiaotong University)

2020

The lateral stability of ballasted track becomes more important because of the safety requirement under the demand of higher train speed and heavier axle load. To increase the lateral resistance of ballast bed, this paper proposes three types of new sleepers, frictional sleepers. The frictional sleepers are sleepers with different shapes of textures attached at the sleeper bottom. To study the application feasibility of the frictional sleepers, experimental tests (single sleeper pull-out test) and numerical simulation (discrete element modelling) are performed. The lateral resistances of the three types of frictional sleepers are compared with the traditional sleeper based on the experimental test, and the mechanism of the lateral resistance increase is revealed according to the numerical simulation. The results indicate that the frictional sleepers can increase the lateral resistance by 32% (maximum), due to the enhanced interaction between sleeper and ballast particles. More importantly, different types of frictional sleepers have different performances, and the optimal friction sleeper is confirmed. This study is helpful for the further research on sleeper design.

Ballasted track
DEM
Discrete element modelling
Fictional sleeper
Lateral resistance

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e4980343-56d0-4063-8d51-92029b6d52d7

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118770

2021-03-30

0950-0618

Construction and Building Materials, 250

Accepted Author Manuscript

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2020 Y. Guo, Hao Fu, Yu Qian, V.L. Markine, Guoqing Jing