• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.907-913
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• 1994

The design of railroad bridges differs from road bridges because of the interface between track structure and bridge structure. The track generally consists of Continuous Welded Rail(CWR) which is fixed by fasteners to the sleepers embedded in the ballast. The ballast provides the interface between the track structure and the bridge structure. Large longitudinal forces can develop from the temperature variation in rail and bridge structure. These longitudinal forces are specially important for long bridges because the bridge layout for span length, pier dimensions and arrangement and type of bearings can be governed by these forces. This report provides a comparison of longitudinal track forces determined by analysis and actual measured track forces. In recent practice the longitudinal track force for European railways is analyzed using a finite element analysis method. This method is very time-consuming and requires the detail design of the bridge to be complete. Redesign is required if the design criteria for longitudinal track forces are not satisfied. There is a need to develop a simple analysis method considering the large number of bridge structures and a relatively short design time on the Korean High Speed Rail Project. The analysis results presented herein, based on a simplified analysis, show good agreement with those obtained by finite element analysis, as well as with those measured on an actual track. The proposed analysis method is particularly useful for the preliminary design of bridge structures.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 1992

The purpose of this study is to provide the cause and countermeasure for track problems in the high speed railways due to the irregularly increasing dynamic wheel loads running over the speed range of 300 km/h. It has long been recognised that the track problems encountered on high speed railways are associated mainly with vertical dynamic loads which are related to the unsprung mass of vehicles and track irregularities. In addition to these parameters for the estimation of the dynamic wheel load variation, however, the dynamic characteristics of track structures are discussed in this paper with reference to mathematical modelling of the tracks and vehicle. From the results of the more detailed analyses, the effects of track stiffness and damping characteristics are considered to be significant for reducing the dynamic wheel loads. To make this point clear and appraise the overall performance of the track components, the theoretical analysis on the dynamic behavior of the tracks and wheel set impact tests on several track structures are performed. The experimental results from different track components are compared with each other. The track stiffness and damping characteristics are also presented quantatively.