Waves propagating in railway tracks at high frequencies

철로를 따라 장거리 전파하는 고주파수 대역 파동 특성 연구

In order to understand long range wave propagation in railway tracks, it is required to identify how far vibrations can travel along a rail. To answer this question, the attenuation characteristics of the main propagating waves are required as a function of distance. In this work, it is identified which wave types predominantly propagate on various regions of the rail cross-section. Then decay rates of propagating waves in railway tracks are investigated for frequencies up to 80 kHz. A numerical method called the Wavenumber Finite Element (WFE) method is utilized to predict dispersion curves and decay rates for a rail on a continuous foundation. In order to validate the simulated results, measurements have been performed on a test track and an operational railway track. The measured results are compared with the output of the simulations and good agreements are found between them.