Critical Velocity of Short Floating Slab Track Using Alterable Element Method Considering Wheel-Rail Contact Loss

Abstract

In actual line operation, the critical velocity is one of the key physical quantities of rail design owing to its great influence on the riding comfort and safety of vehicles due to the wheel-rail contact loss caused by the abrupt change of rail foundation rigidity, rail wear, or abruptness irregularities on rail. In this study, the short floating slab track (SFST) structure is regarded as a double-layer system. The Euler beam and the rigid body model are adopted for the rail and the floating slab, respectively, and the dispersion equation and the theoretical critical velocity of the rail structure under ideal conditions are deduced. Besides, this study considers the implementation of the SFST in the vehicle-structure coupling system. The alterable element method is introduced for accurately simulating the change of the wheel-rail contact state and coding a vehicle-structure dynamic analysis program (VSDAP) to calculate the critical velocity of rail structures from the dynamic response of vehicles and rail structures. The principle of its design at the beginning of the design is given on the basis of the theoretical value of the critical velocity and the simulation of the dynamic response, which can provide reference for practical engineering design.