• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.195-202
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• 2008

The transition area between a bridge and an earthwork is one of the weakest area of track because of the track geometry deterioration caused unequal settlement of backfill of abutment. In case of a ballastless track, the approach slab could be installed to prevent such a phenomenon. But, if there is occurred the inclined displacement on the approach slab by a settlement of the foundation or formation, the track is also under the inclined displacement. And this defect causes reducing the running stability of a vehicle, the riding comfort of passengers, and increasing the track deteriorations by excessive impact force acting on the track. In this study, parametric studies were performed to investigate the displacement limit on the approach slab to avoid such problems. The length and the amount of unequal settlement of approach slab were adopted as parameter for numerical analysis considering vehicle-track interaction. Car body accelerations, variations of wheel force, stresses in rail, and uplift forces induced on fastener clip were investigated. From the result, resonable settlement limit on the end of an approach slab according to slab length was suggested.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.113-128
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• 2017

This paper highlights a study undertaken on the free vibration of a precast steel-concrete composite slab panel for track support. The steel-concrete composite slab track is an evolvement from the slab track, a form of ballastless track which is becoming increasingly attractive to asset owners as they seek to reduce lifecycle costs and deal with increasing rail traffic speeds. The slender nature of the slab panel due to its reduced depth of construction makes it susceptible to vibration problems. The aim of the study is driven by the need to address the limited research available to date on the dynamic behaviour of steel-concrete composite slab panels for track support. Free vibration analysis of the track slab has been carried out using ABAQUS. Both eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes have been extracted using the Lanczos method. The fundamental natural frequencies of the slab panel have been identified together with corresponding mode shapes. To investigate the sensitivity of the natural frequencies and mode shapes, parametric studies have been established, considering concrete strength and mass and steel's modulus of elasticity. This study is the world first to observe crossover phenomena that result in the inversion of the natural orders without interaction. It also reveals that replacement of the steel with aluminium or carbon fibre sheeting can only marginally reduce the natural frequencies of the slab panel.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.427-442
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• 2017

This paper presents unprecedented damped oscillation behaviours of a precast steel-concrete composite slab panel for track support. The steel-concrete composite slab track is an innovative slab track, a form of ballastless track which is becoming increasingly attractive to asset owners as they seek to reduce lifecycle costs and deal with increasing rail traffic speeds. The slender nature of the slab panel due to its reduced depth of construction makes it susceptible to vibration problems. The aim of the study is driven by the need to address the limited research available to date on the dynamic behaviour of steel-concrete composite slab panels for track support. Free vibration analysis of the track slab has been carried out using ABAQUS. Both undamped and damped eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes have been extracted using the Lancsoz method. The fundamental natural frequencies of the slab panel have been identified together with corresponding mode shapes. To investigate the sensitivity of the natural frequencies and mode shapes, parametric studies have been established, considering concrete strength and mass and steel's modulus of elasticity. This study is the world first to observe crossover phenomena that result in the inversion of the natural orders without interaction. It also reveals that replacement of the steel with aluminium or carbon fibre sheeting can only marginally reduce the natural frequencies of the slab panel.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.78 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2021

Track-bridge interaction has become an essential part in the design of bridges and rails in terms of modern railways. As a unique ballastless slab track, the longitudinal continuous slab track (LCST) or referred to as the China railway track system Type-II (CRTS II) slab track, demonstrates a complex force mechanism. Therefore, a comprehensive track-bridge interaction study between multi-span simply supported beam bridges and the LCST is presented in this work. In specific, we have developed an integrated finite element model to investigate the overall interaction effects of the LCST-bridge system subjected to the actions of temperature changes, traffic loads, and braking forces. In that place, the deformation patterns of the track and bridge, and the distributions of longitudinal forces and the interfacial shear stress are studied. Our results show that the additional rail stress has been reduced under various loads and the rail's deformation has become much smoother after the transition of the two continuous structural layers of the LCST. However, the influence of the temperature difference of bridges is significant and cannot be ignored as this action can bend the bridge like the traffic load. The uniform temperature change causes the tensile stress of the concrete track structure and further induce cracks in them. Additionally, the influences of the friction coefficient of the sliding layer and the interfacial bond characteristics on the LCST's performance are discussed. The systematic study presented in this work may have some potential impacts on the understanding of the overall mechanical behavior of the LCST-bridge system.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.1149-1155
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• 2007

The transition area between a bridge and an earthwork is one of the weakest area of track because of the track geometry deterioration caused unequal settlement of backfill of abutment. In case of a ballastless track, the approach slab is installed to prevent the phenomenon. But, if there is occurred the inclined displacement on the approach slab by a settlement of the foundation or formation, the track is also under the inclined displacement. And this defect causes reducing the running stability of a vehicle, the riding comfort of passengers, and the deteriorations of track by excessive impact subjected to the track. In this study, parametric studies were performed to know what is the allowable displacement limit on the approach slab to avoid such a bad effect. The length and amount of unequal settlement of the approach slab was adopted as parameter for numerical analysis. And car body accelerations, variations of wheel force and rail stress and uplift force induced on a fastener clip are investigated. From the result, resonable settlement limits of an approach slab according to slab length was suggested.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.83-99
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• 2023

The temperature prediction approaches of three important locations in an operational longitudinal slab track-bridge structure by using three typical neural network methods based on the field measuring platform of four meteorological factors and internal temperature. The measurement experiment of four meteorological factors (e.g., ambient temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, and humidity) temperature in the three locations of the longitudinal slab and base plate of three important locations (e.g., mid-span, beam end, and Wide-Narrow Joint) were conducted, and then their characteristics were analyzed, respectively. Furthermore, temperature prediction effects of three locations under five various meteorological conditions are tested by using three neural network methods, respectively, including the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). More importantly, the predicted effects of solar radiation in four meteorological factors could be identified with three indicators (e.g., Root Means Square Error, Mean Absolute Error, Correlation Coefficient of R2). In addition, the LSTM method shows the best performance, while the CNN method has the best prediction effect by only considering a single meteorological factor.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.75 no.4
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• pp.497-506
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• 2020

CA mortar layer disengagement will give rise to the overall structural changes of the track and variation in the vibration form of the ballastless track. By establishing a vehicle-track-viaduct coupling analysis and calculation model, it is possible to analyze the CRTS-I type track structure vibration response while the track slab is disengaging with the power flow evaluation method, to compare the two disengaging types, namely partial contact loss at one edge beneath track slab and partial contact loss at midpoint beneath track slab. It can also study how the length of disengaging influences the track structures vibration power. It is showed that when the partial contact loss beneath track slab, and the relative vibration energy level between the rail and the track slab increases significantly within [10, 200]Hz with the same disengaging length, the partial contact loss at one edge beneath track slab has more prominent influence on the vibration power than the partial contact loss at midpoint beneath track slab. With the increase of disengaging length, the relative vibration energy level of the track slab grows sharply, but it will change significantly when it reaches 1.56 m. Little effect will be caused by the relative vibration energy level of the viaduct. The partial contact loss beneath the track slab will cause more power distribution and transmission between the trail and track slab, and will then affect the service life of the rail and track slab.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.713-723
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• 2017

As a new type of ballastless track, longitudinal continuous slab track (CST) has been widely used in China. It can partly isolate the interaction between the ballastless track and the bridge and thus the rail expansion device would be unnecessary. Compared with the traditional track, CST is composed of multi layers of continuous structures and various connecting components. In order to investigate the performance of CST on a long-span bridge, the spatial finite element model considering each layer of the CST structure, connecting components, bridge, and subgrade is established and verified according to the theory of beam-rail interaction. The nonlinear resistance of materials between multilayer track structures is measured by experiments, while the temperature gradients of the bridge and CST are based on the long-term measured data. This study compares the force distribution rules of ballasted track and CST as respectively applied to a long span bridge. The effects of different damage conditions on CST structures are also discussed. The results show that the additional rail stress is small and the CST structure has a high safety factor under the measured temperature load. The rail expansion device can be cancelled when CST is adopted on the long span bridge. Beam end rotation caused by temperature gradient and vertical load will have a significant effect on the rail stress of CST. The additional flexure stress should be considered with the additional expansion stress simultaneously when the rail stress of CST requires to be checked. Both the maximum sliding friction coefficient of sliding layer and cracking condition of concrete plate should be considered to decide the arrangement of connecting components and the ultimate expansion span of the bridge when adopting CST.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2023

A simplified calculation method of natural vibration characteristics of high-speed railway multi-span bridge-longitudinal ballastless track system is proposed. The rail, track slab, base slab, main beam, bearing, pier, cap and pile foundation are taken into account, and the multi-span longitudinal ballastless track-beam-bearing-pier-cap-pile foundation integrated model (MBTIM) is established. The energy equation of each component of the MBTIM based on Timoshenko beam theory is constructed. Using the improved Fourier series, and the Rayleigh-Ritz method and Hamilton principle are combined to obtain the extremum of the total energy function. The simplified calculation formula of the natural vibration frequency of the MBTIM under the influence of vertical and longitudinal vibration is derived and verified by numerical methods. The influence law of the natural vibration frequency of the MBTIM is analyzed considering and not considering the participation of each component of the MBTIM, the damage of the track interlayer component and the stiffness change of each layer component. The results show that the error between the calculation results of the formula and the numerical method in this paper is less than 3%, which verifies the correctness of the method in this paper. The high-order frequency of the MBTIM is significantly affected considering the track, bridge pier, pile soil and pile cap, while considering the influence of pile cap on the low-order and high-order frequency of the MBTIM is large. The influence of component damage such as void beneath slab, mortar debonding and fastener failure on each order frequency of the MBTIM is basically the same, and the influence of component damage less than 10m on the first fourteen order frequency of the MBTIM is small. The bending stiffness of track slab and rail has no obvious influence on the natural frequency of the MBTIM, and the bending stiffness of main beam has influence on the natural frequency of the MBTIM. The bending stiffness of pier and base slab only has obvious influence on the high-order frequency of the MBTIM. The natural vibration characteristics of the MBTIM play an important guiding role in the safety analysis of high-speed train running, the damage detection of track-bridge structure and the seismic design of railway bridge.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

The track systems installed in Korea railway consist of two types on ballasted track or ballastless track. In this study, it was compared with difference of the behaviors at roadbed with cyclic loading through full scale model test. From the results of model tests, loading distribution ratio of the concrete slab track become more widely distributed than ballasted track, and loading distribution ratio at concrete track was about 30:20:15. The concrete slab track is likely to behavior of the rigid plate, while ballasted track is such as flexible pavement. The vertical stresses of upper roadbed with traffic cyclic loading in concrete track were measured about 30 kPa or less. It was a scene very similar to the results of the field train running test. The vertical stress at concrete track was occurred approximately 4 times smaller than ballasted track. Also, the soil velocities with cyclic loading at the slab track were occurred about 0.3 cm/sec or less, its 8 times smaller than ballasted track.