Weld-induced squats are a major damage type in high-speed railways as well as in conventional railways. They incur high maintenance costs and endanger operational safety. This paper first presents and analyzes five-year continual field monitoring observations and measurements of squats at rail welds. A hypothesis of the formation and development process of the squats is proposed, which includes three steps. Steps 1 and 2 are pre-cracking, and Step 3 is post-cracking. To verify the pre-cracking process, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model is then built up to simulate the vehicle-track interaction with detailed consideration of the local wheel-rail frictional rolling contact. Not only dynamic contact forces but also plastic deformation and wear are calculated. Starting from a smooth rail surface with varying yield stress derived from field-measured hardness, the numerical analysis confirms the hypothesis that the varying hardness at heat-affected zones (HAZs) leads to initial V-shaped irregularities due to differential plastic deformation. Afterward, the surface irregularities excite the dynamic longitudinal contact force, which in turn produces a W-shaped surface pattern through further differential plastic deformation. The growth of the W-shaped pattern leads to the formation of squats. This work provides insight into the squat formation process at rail welds and suggests that welding quality control in terms of hardness variation in the HAZs could reduce or even avoid squats. Early detection of squats with dynamics-based methods is possible.@en

To efficiently select track irregularity random samples for satisfying the ergodicity requirements of excitation sources in stochastic dynamics and reliability analysis in vehicle-track system, the weak-stationarity and similarity spectral of track irregularities were introduced to propose a track irregularity probabilistic model. Using the discrete probability integration and statistical approaches, the massively measured track irregularity time histories were divided into multiple time-domain sequences. The statistical power spectral density distribution of each sequence was calculated by the spectral analysis method. Then, using the matrix-based method, the set representation of the power spectral density function of track irregularities was obtained. It was assumed that the power spectral densities could be linearly accumulated at different frequencies, allowing the probabilities of entire spectra line to be obtained using the power spectral density probability distribution of a single frequency. The representative track irregularity spectra were selected through the commonly random simulation methods, and the track random irregularities were inversely simulated. The height and direction track irregularities of high-speed railway about 269 km were measured. Based on the vehicle-track coupled dynamics theory, the calculation results between the track irregularity probabilistic model and track irregularity stochastic model was compared from the aspects of the simulated amplitude of track irregularity and the probability density distribution for dynamic response in the vehicle-track system to verify the validity and high efficacy of the track irregularity probabilistic model. Calculation result shows that when taking the track random irregularities caused by the two models as excitation sources, the difference of the obtained probability entropies of vehicle-track system dynamic response between the two models is less than 2%. Both models can accurately express the excitation characteristics of track irregularities. The stochastic and probabilistic models need 131 and 33 random samples, respectively, to guarantee the consistent probability density distributions between the simulation and measurement, and the probabilistic model has higher computation efficiency. Under the presented computational condition, the wheel-rail forces and car body accelerations are 38-152 kN and -0.042g-0.043g, respectively, and are respectively less than the limits of wheel-rail forces (170 kN) and car body accelerations (0.25g) in Code for High Speed Railway Design (TB 10621-2014). The track irregularity status of the investigated high-speed line is sufficient to guarantee the running safety and riding comfort of the vehicle.@en

To simulate ballast performance accurately and efficiently, the input in discrete element models should be carefully selected, including the contact model and applied particle shape. To study the effects of the contact model and applied particle shape on the ballast performance (shear strength and deformation), the direct shear test (DST) model and the large-scale process simulation test (LPST) model were developed on the basis of two types of contact models, namely the rolling resistance linear (RRL) model and the linear contact (LC) model. Particle shapes are differentiated by clumps. A clump is a sphere assembly for one ballast particle. The results show that compared with the typical LC model, the RRL method is more efficient and realistic to predict shear strength results of ballast assemblies in DSTs. In addition, the RRL contact model can also provide accurate vertical and lateral ballast deformation under the cyclic loading in LPSTs.@en

To simulate ballast performance accurately and efficiently, the input in discrete element models should be carefully selected, including the contact model and applied particle shape. To study the effects of the contact model and applied particle shape on the ballast performance (shear strength and deformation), the direct shear test (DST) model and the large-scale process simulation test (LPST) model were developed on the basis of two types of contact models, namely the rolling resistance linear (RRL) model and the linear contact (LC) model. Particle shapes are differentiated by clumps. A clump is a sphere assembly for one ballast particle. The results show that compared with the typical LC model, the RRL method is more efficient and realistic to predict shear strength results of ballast assemblies in DSTs. In addition, the RRL contact model can also provide accurate vertical and lateral ballast deformation under the cyclic loading in LPSTs.@en