• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.1248-1253
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• 2011

It is increasing construction of long span railway bridge with concrete track system for speed up of railway and efficient maintenance of track. As the sleeper of the concrete track system layed on a bridge is fixed on deck of the bridge, the displacement of the sleeper and deck is same. Therefore, the spacing between two sleeper installed at the end of the adjacent deck near the expansion joint of bridge becomes vary according to the longitudinal expansion of a deck by temperature change. By the way, if the spacing of sleepers become increase excessively, it causes large bending stress of in a rail, and it can leads failure or reduction of fatigue life of the rail. Further more, the excessive displacement of the rail may induce decrease ride comfort as well as corrugation of rail surface. Therefore, it is required to determine the allowable maximum sleeper spacing to prevent such problems. For the purpose, investigation on the influence factor on sleeper spacing for straight track was carried out. Variation of bending moment in a rail, wheel force, and the ratio of primary and secondary deflection of the rail according to sleeper spacing was investigated, and, as a result, the maximum allowable sleeper spacing at the bridge expansion joint was suggested.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.436-442
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• 2011

It is increasing construction of long span railway bridge with concrete track system for speed up of railway and efficient maintenance of track. As the sleeper of the concrete track system layed on a bridge is fixed on deck of the bridge, the displacement of the sleeper and deck is same. Therefore, the spacing between two sleeper installed at the end of the adjacent deck near the expansion joint of bridge becomes vary according to the longitudinal expansion of a deck by temperature change. By the way, if the spacing of sleepers become increase excessively, it causes large bending stress of in a rail, and it can leads failure or reduction of fatigue life of the rail. And also the excessive displacement of the rail may induce decrease ride comfort. Therefore, in order to prevent such problems, the allowable maximum sleeper spacing at a bridge expansion joint was mutually determined. And, the determination procedure of the maximum bridge expansion length based on the allowable sleeper spacing was suggested.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.569-577
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• 2012

In this study, a theoretical investigation of optimized sleeper spacing which can suppress resonances of a railway track is attempted. To achieve this, we introduced a minimization problem in which the objective function is given by the wave transmittance and the design variable is defined by sleeper distribution. In the analysis the rail is modeled by a Timoshenko beam and the sleeper is represented by a mass. The infinite track analysis is realized by attaching the transmitting boundaries at both ends of the finite optimization region. Through numerical analyses the sleeper spacing effective in reduction of the transmittance is discussed. Furthermore, the feasibility of the proposed method is validated in the aspect of vibration reduction through response analyses for a harmonic load.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.846-853
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• 2008

Maglev System is expected to be a new public transportation for future because of its special characteristics. Sleepers of railway role on transferring the lateral load to guideway for Maglev and controlling the distance between rails. Variation of distance of sleepers can affect dynamic responses for maglev guideway. In this paper, Daejon maglev guideway is analyzed to find proper tie spacing of a maglev system. The analysis included using a maglev trainload and also the dead load as the primary forces on bridges. Not only the dynamic behavior of bridges is investigated under sleeper conditions, but also impact factor about vertical displacement on the guideway is produced. This guideway is analyzed in four cases followed by changing spacing of sleeper and then obtained dynamic characteristics such as displacements, acceleration and impact factor by Finite Element Analysis.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.303-310
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• 2001

The railroad under operation has very sharp curves and the state of ballast is somewhat deteriorated due to the traffic loads, which put some constraints in converting the conventional rails into CWR. In making CWR, the determination whether the ballast has sufficient capacity for resisting buckling must be made, quantitatively and qualitatively, and schemes to guarantee the required lateral resistance of ballast should be proposed. In this study, using the in-situ investigated data, the probability of buckling of CWR is given for several installation temperatures for CWR. The effect of tamping, DTS, and sleeper spacing are taken into account. The buckling probability is given as a function of curvature and installation temperature of CWR and works used to increase the ballast resistance capacity after tamping, i.e., DTS and reduction of sleeper sparing.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.775-784
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• 2017

This study is devoted to developing many new substructure models for ballasted railway track by using the pyramid model philosophy. As the effect of railway embankment has been less considered in the previous studies in the field of vehicle/track interaction, so the present study develops the pyramid models in the presence of railway embankment and implements them in vehicle/track interaction dynamic analyses. Considering a moving car body as multi bodies with 10 degrees of freedom and the ballasted track including rail, sleeper, ballast, subgrade and embankment, two categories of numerical analyses are performed by considering the new substructure systems including type A (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the ballast layer) or type B (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the subgrade layer). A comprehensive sensitivity analyses are performed on effective parameters such as ballast height, sleepers spacing and sleeper width. The results indicate that the stiffness of subgrade, embankment and foundation increased by increasing the ballast height. Also, by increasing the ballast height, rail and ballast vertical displacement decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.28-33
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• 2017

A sharp curved ballasted track on earthwork that was connected with a direct fixation slab track on steel box railway bridges have been deformed and damaged despite the frequently maintenance by a restoring force of sharp curved rail and track-bridge interaction forces such as axial forces and longitudinal displacement of continuous welded rail(CWR) owing to their structural characteristics, calling for alternatives to improve the structural safety and track irregularity. In this study, the authors aim to prove a cause of deformation for the sharp curved ballasted tracks to enhance the structural safety and track irregularity of ballasted track in service. A track-bridge interaction analysis and a finite-element method analysis for the sharp curved ballasted track were performed to consider the axial force and longitudinal displacement of CWR, the temperature and the effect of restoring force of sharp curved rail. From the results, the deformation of the sharp curved ballasted track with adjusted sleeper spacing from 833mm to 590mm were significantly reduced.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.270-280
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• 2014

In this study, to examine the causes of cracks in continuously reinforced concrete tracks (CRCTs) and the main factors affecting cracking, a field survey on the status of cracks and crack patterns in the Gyeong-bu high speed line was conducted, and the crack patterns of CRCT due to the temperature difference between the top of the slab (TCL) and the bottom of the subbase (HSB) and the drying shrinkage of concrete were predicted by a nonlinear finite element model considering the structure of CRCT. The results of the numerical analysis show that cracks will be developed at the interface between the sleeper and the TCL, and under the sleeper due to the temperature difference and concrete shrinkage. This corresponds well to the crack locations found in the field. Also, it is found that the most significant factors are the coefficient of thermal expansion with respect to the temperature difference, and the drying shrinkage strain with respect to shrinkage. According to the results, the reinforcement ratio should be carefully determined considering the structures of CRCT because the crack spacing is not always proportional to the reinforcement ratio due to the sleepers embedded in the TCL.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.613-625
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• 2012

Since railway bridge frequently have a chance of passing train load close to design load, it is necessary to reflect sufficiently fatigue property in early design phase for many structural details. Nevertheless fatigue cracks are reported partly in deck plate girder of railway steel bridge because of the weight and arrangement of axial load acting on railway bridge, the application of improper structural details for fatigue problem etc.. One of main cause for fatigue crack at the welded part of upper flange and web is caused by the eccentricity action of train load due to the difference of center to center spacing between the main girder supporting sleeper and the rail acting train load. For the existing deck plate girder of railway steel bridge, in this study, field survey, field measurement and a series of structural analysis were performed. In addition, the characteristics of structural behavior, the causes and repair/ retrofit of fatigue crack were examined in the target bridge.