• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.717-726
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• 2016

Emergency tracks are necessary in case a broken down train evacuates, a train needs to make way for a faster train behind it, or a train suddenly stops and following trains must avoid colliding with it. Magnetic Levitated (maglev) Trains can change track to enter an emergency track using a segmented switch or a traverse switch. On a traverse switch, a train can change its track when the part of the track that the train is on moves to the other track. Currently manufactured Maglev trains have two bodies and the total length is 25 meters. If a traverse switch is used, it will only require 30 meters of track to move the train to the other track, so, when it comes to efficiency of costs and space, the traverse switch surpasses the articulated switch. Therefore, in this paper, an optimized design to secure structural safety and weight lightening is suggested. To achieve these results, the heights of the piled concrete and girders which are both placed on the top of the traverse switch, are set as design variables. The Finite Element Method (FEM), in application of kriging and in the design of the experiments (DOE), is used. Maximum stress, deformation, and structural weight are compared with the results, and through this process structural safety and weight lightening is proven.