Modelling of the shape of railway transition curves from the point of view of passenger comfort

Abstract

In the past, railway transition curves were not used. Instead of it, a simple connection of the straight track and circular arc was applied. Nowadays, such simplicity is not allowed due to the increasing vehicle operating velocities. It is mainly visible in the high-speed train lines, where long curves are used. The article aims to develop a new shape of railway transition curves for which passenger travel comfort will be as high as possible. Considerations in this paper concern the polynomials of 9th- and 11th-degrees, which were adopted to the mathematical model of the mentioned shape of curves. The study's authors applied a 2-axle rail vehicle model combined with mathematically understood optimisation methods. The advanced vehicle model can better assign the dynamical properties of railway transition curves to freight and passenger vehicles. The mentioned model was adopted to simulate rail vehicle movement in both cases of the shape of transition curves and the shape of circular arc (for comparison of the results). Passenger comfort, described by European Standard EN 12299, was used as the assessment criterion. The work showed that the method using the 2-axle railway vehicle model combined with mathematically understood optimisation works correctly, and the optimisation of the transition curve shape is possible. The current study showed that the 3rd-degree parabola (the shape of the curve traditionally used in railway engineering) is not always the optimum shape. In many cases (especially for the long curves), the optimum shape of curves is between the standard transition curves and the linear curvature of the 3rd-degree parabola. The new shapes of the railway transition curves obtained when the passenger comfort is taken into account result in new railway transition curves shapes. In the authors' opinion, the results presented in the current work are a novelty in optimisation and the properties assessment of railway transition curves.