Estimation of the Rail pad Stiffness Characteristic and the Sustainable period in Service

운행선에서 레일패드의 탄성변화율과 내구년수 예측

Any track system needs major changes of its components during its life. The most economical solution is, if possible, to make all components reach their life limit during the major track rehabilitation operation. Usually, the rail does a role as the driving component for the objective: its life-time is equivalent to around 500 million tons of traffic on high speed lines. On the KTX line with 110 trains per day, this would correspond to around 16 years, which is probably too long for the elastic pads of a concrete slab track. The most economical solution should be to change them at an intermediate step of 8 years, without changing the rail, and then to change both the rail and elastic pad at 16 years intervals (some rail changes on the South East TGV line in France began 15 years after service opening at 260 km/h, but recent rails have better characteristics).