• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.433-440
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• 1998

For many decades, railroad technology was used to set up tracks with jointed rails and lengths in accordance with rolling and handling technology. The joints lead to drawbacks in the track and in controlling rising maintenance costs. So, railroad engineers became interested in eliminating joints to increase loads, speeds and improvements in rolling, welding, and fastening technology. Continuous welded rail(CWR) track has many advantages over the conventional jointed-rail track. In the case of the elimination of rail joints, it may cause the track to be suddenly and laterally buckled by thermal forces and vehicle load. Thermal forces are caused by an increase in the temperature of railway track. For many years, many analytical and experimental investigations have been conducted to improve the safety of CWR track by various research center in many country. In this paper, CWR track model and CWRB program is developed for buckling analysis using finite element method(FEM). The finite element discretization is used for a rail element with a total of 14 degrees of freedom. The stiffness of the fasteners, tie, and ballast bed is included by a set of spring elements. The investigation on the buckling modes and temperature of CWR track is presented in this paper

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1058-1064
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• 2004

As one of reinforcing methods for soft roadbed, the problems that mud-pumping and settlement occurred by soft roadbed, were investigated, evaluated and analyzed through installing relatively economical and efficient geosynthetics on the selected track-bed for testing. Mock-heang to Dong-ryang on the filed resting sections in the Chung-buk lines were selected as investigating the state of track and prepared field after selecting three of 1,700 spots which often make mud-pumping and requiting maintenance for that. Long curved line radiuses(R) of Mock-heang to Dong-ryang are 500m that were installed with 4 types of geosynthetics layers and one ballast layer. Installed testing cross-section is 200m totally with 40 m between places. Strength or prepared roadbed was measured to investigate the state of roadbed and track with constructing(installing) field testing sections and physical properties of roadbed soils were evaluated and analyzed. Also, mud-pumping, settlement of elastic or plastic sleeper, failure or track, wheel-loads, transverse and earth pressures were measured after installing field testing sections.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05b
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• pp.369-375
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• 2009

The Periodic replacements criterion of rail is calculated on the basis of the research result of RTRI in Japan. It is suggested that the service life of the continuous welded rail(CWR) is estimated by the relationship between the rail surface irregularity according to the accumulated passing tonnage and bending fatigue of welded part in CWR. In order to establish the periodic replacements criterion of CWR, this study measured the rail surface irregularity according to the accumulated passing tonnage, the types of track system and welding. Therefore, it is analyzed that the gas pressure welding is the worst one of the others. In addition, it is analyzed that the rail surface irregularity growth rate in ballast track is about $0.02{\sim}0.03mm$/100MGT and its in concrete track is about $0.005{\sim}0.02mm$/100MGT Finally, the result of this study is able to use the basis data to establishing the periodic replacements criterion of CWR considering rail grinding.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05b
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• pp.641-646
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• 2009

Concrete tracks are superior to ballast tracks in the aspect of durability, maintenance and safety. However, deteriorated stiffness of railroad bed and settlement of soft ground induced by trapped or seepage water lead to problems in safety of train operation. In this research, characteristic stiffness of concrete tracks, which is determined from FRACTAL (Flexural-Rigidity Assessment of Concrete Tracks by Antisymmetric Lamb Waves) technique, was employed as an index of track displacement. The characteristic stiffness is defined using Poisson's ratio, moment of inertia and stiffness ratio of subgrade to slab. To verify validity and reliability of the proposed characteristic stiffness, experimental and theoretical researches were performed. Feasibility of the characteristic stiffness based on FRACTAL technique was proved at a real concrete track for Korean high-speed trains. Validity of the FRACTAL technique was also verified by comparing the results of impulse-response tests performed at the same measurement array and the results of SASW tests and DC resistivity survey performed at a shoulder nearby the track.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.251-259
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• 2014

The transition zone between an earthwork and a bridge effect to the vehicle's running stability because support stiffness of the roadbed is suddenly changed. The design criteria for the transition structure on ballast track were not particular in the past. However with the introduction of concrete track is introduced, it requires there is a higher performance level required because of maintenance and running stability. In this present paper, a transition structure reinforced with geosynthetics is suggested to improve the performance of existing bridge-earthwork transition structures. The suggested transition structure, in which there is reinforcing of the approach block using high-tension geosynthetics, has a structure similar to that of earth reinforced abutments. The utilized backfill materials are cement treated soil and gravel. These materials are used to reduce water intrusion into the approach block and to increase the recycling of surplus earth materials. An experiment was performed under the same conditions in order to allow a comparison of this new structure with the existing transition structure. Evaluation items are elastic displacement, cumulative settlement, and earth pressure. As for the results of the real-scale accelerated testing, the suggested transition structure has excellent performance for the reduction of earth pressure and settlement. Above all, it has high resistance the variation of the water content.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2011

In this study, structural safety capacity analysis of the overpass railway bridge between Konkuk Univ. and Guui station railroad has been performed. The overpass is expected to have suffered durability reduction by deterioration. The weight reduction of the overpass has been implemented to prevent further durability reduction and to improve performance capacity. To reduce the weight, 3 procedures of replacing concrete soundproofing wall to light-weight soundproofing wall, replacing gravel ballast to concrete ballast, and reducing the weight of trough have been performed. The analysis of static/dynamic behaviors and improved capacity of the light-weighted overpass bridge has been performed. The structural safety verification of the improved structure has been implemented by using rating factors of load carrying capacity of PSC I girder. The results have shown that the deflection has been reduced by 2.6mm and tensile strength has been improved by 1.07MPa, which indicate that the structural capacity has effectively been improved. Also, the natural frequency has improved by approximately 30% where vibration reduction and dynamic behavior improvement have been achieved. Moreover, in the rating factor evaluation based on analysis and test results, an improvement from 1.82 to 1.93 has been observed. Therefore, weight reduction method for the overpass is effective considering overall results.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.634-643
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• 2010

In this study, both an experimental test and a time history analysis with 3D modeling were performed to verify the structural analysis model in a 2-span two girder bridge of high speed railway, which was under constructed according to the ballast load of track structure. In the basis of the structural analysis model, the analysis of construction step was carried out to investigate the reduction effect of moment in middle support of the bridge which has initial prestressing force according to camber control. The initial prestressing force of proper level was calculated, and then the reduction of moment for economical bridge section was studied. Finally, a bridge analysis method was presented for an economical and efficient design in steel composite bridge.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1303-1308
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• 2007

Recently, precast concrete tracks are replacing ballast track for efficient and economic maintenance of track. Precast concrete railroad tracks are manufactured in factory, and transported to railroad construction site for installation. Therefore, quality of precast concrete track itself should be sufficiently good. On the contrary to the convenient manufacturing of precast concrete track, the installation of a precast concrete track requires careful steps. Typically, a precast concrete track is placed on an approximately 15-cm thick lean concrete layer. A mortar is filled between lean concrete layer and precast concrete track to adjust the sloping angle of a precast concrete track for a safe train operation at a curvy section. Then, the use of filled mortarproduces a void underneath a precast concrete track, which is harmful to structural safety of a precast concrete track undercyclic loading. Therefore, it is essential to make sure that there is no void left beneath a precast concrete track after mortar filling. In the continuous resonance method, the amplitude of frequency response measured using an instrumented hammer and an accelerometer is plotted against a pseudo-depth, which is half of the wave velocity divided by frequency. The frequency response functions are measured at consecutive measurement locations, 6-cm interval between measurement points, and then combined together to generate a 2-D plot of frequency response. The sections with strong reflections or large amplitude of frequency response are suspicious areas with internal voids and unfilled areas. The 2-D frequency response plot was efficient in locating problematic sections just by examining the color shade of a visualized plot in 2-D format. Some of the problematic sections were drilled to make a visual inspection of mortar filling. The visual image of interface between mortar and precast concrete track was verified using the validity of the continuous resonance technique adopted in this research.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.11 no.3 s.40
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• pp.281-290
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• 1999

For many decades, the railway was constructed using tracks with jointed rails of relatively short lengths in accordance with rolling and handling technology. The joints cause many drawbacks in the track and lead to significant maintenance cost. So, railroad engineers became interested in eliminating joints to increase service loads ana speeds by improving rolling, welding, and fastening technology. Continuous welded rail(CWR) track has many advantages over the conventional jointed-rail track. But, in the case of the elimination of rail joints, it may cause the track to be suddenly buckled laterally by thermal loads. In this paper, CWR track model and CWRB program are developed for linear buckling analysis using finite element method. Rail element with a total of 14 degrees of freedom is used. The stiffness of the fastener, tie, and ballast bed are included by a set of spring elements. The investigation on the buckling modes and temperature of CWR track is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 2023

This study analyzed the causes of frost damage and freezing depth for concrete ballast sites in the Gangwon mountainous area, which has a high freezing index, and considered the equation for freezing depth in concrete roadbeds. Comparing the freezing depth tendencies of concrete roadbeds in the Gangwon mountainous area and Gangwon area, it was found that the freezing depth of concrete roadbeds was higher than that of the Gangwon area when the freezing index was less than 400. However, in sections with a freezing index greater than 400, the freezing depth was higher in the Gangwon area than in the concrete roadbeds. This study proposed an equation for computing the freezing depth in the Gangwon area to provide basic data for establishing preventive measures against frost damage during railway and road construction projects in the Gangwon region.