• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.152-157
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• 2018

The degradation and damage of the components for ballasted track could be caused a serious problem for railway safety. Therefore, the integrity evaluation of ballasted track condition is important to ensure and predict that the track safety and track maintenance. Various track components such as rail pad, ballast, sleeper, and rail that are widely used in Republic of Korea and represent a range of physical properties have been selected for this research. In this study, the experimental modal analysis was performed by the non-destructive testing. Modal test results were obtained from the field test and used to assess the condition of the track components. From the field test, the system of ballasted track was found to be simplified as a two-degree-of-freedom(2DOF) dynamic system. The condition of track component was found to directly affect the dynamic response of ballasted tracks. As the results, the dynamic properties of the track component was depend on the track condition and was distributed more roughly and over a wider range than its initial design values. Further, the methodology presented in this study is possible to determine experimentally the fundamental track parameters which are required in the numerical analysis, and also are useful for the safety assessment of track condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.41-46
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• 2017

The coefficient of derailment and the rate of wheel load reduction were used as the index of train running safety that was directly affected the train derailment safety. In aspects of track, the train running safety depends on the complex interaction between wheel and rail, and the track-vehicle conditions (i.e., the curvature, cant, track system, vehicle speed and the operation conditions, etc). In this study, the relationship between the train running safety and the track curvature and vehicle speed for direct fixation concrete tracks currently employed in Korean light rapid transit was assessed by performing field tests using actual vehicles running along the service lines. The measured dynamic wheel load, lateral wheel load and lateral displacement of rail head were measured for same train running on four tested tracks under real conditions, which included curved and tangent tracks placed on the tunnel and bridge, thus increasing the train speed by approximately maximum design speed of each test site. Therefore, the measured dynamic track response was applied to the running safety analysis in order to evaluate the coefficient of derailment, the rate of wheel load reduction and the track gauge widening at each test site, and compare with the corresponding Korean train running safety standard. As the results, the lateral track response of direct fixation concrete track appeared to increase with the decreased track curvature; therefore, it was inferred that the track curvature directly affected the train running safety.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.263-268
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• 2004

In many countries safety management on track worker have been carried out alter serious accidents and drastic safety improvement have been achieved as a result of safety management. In order to improve track worker safety in Korea, recent 5-year accident data were analysed and other countries' safety management systems were reviewed. As an result of this study 5-basic requirements for the safety improvement on track worker are derived: education, certification, clear responsibility definition, work planning and upgrade of train warning system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.72-78
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• 2020

The accident fatality rate has decreased by more than 90% compared to 2006, due to the safety management and safety investment based on the Rail Safety Act. Most railway safety indicators, including fatality rates, have improved significantly from 60% to 80%, reaching the level of developed countries in terms of most railway safety indicators. However, the only staff fatality rate at work is not improved, and it is 3 to 5 times higher than that of developed countries. Most of the fatality occurred during employee's work recently occurred due to accidents hit by train while track work. In principle, when operating track need to check or maintenance, the operation of the train should be stopped and the work carried out. However, in Korea, due to the highest passenger density and train operating density in the world, it is caused by a structural problem that requires workers to enter the track while the train is running and perform various tasks such as maintenance and inspection. In this study, we analyzed the risk of accidents caused by hit by trains on the track, which is the biggest cause of staff fatality, using the main statistics of the last 10 years. In detail, the scenarios of the main causes of hit by trains and workers were formed to suggest the effectiveness of the current preventive measures and supplementary.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.311-319
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• 2011

Track accompanies the process that track alignment by traffic loads is changed. A change of track alignment affects the running safety and riding comfort of train. This is called a track irregularity. The most important task in maintaining the track is to manage these track irregularity within quality parameters. Today, track maintenance of urban transit is enforcing immediate maintenance about section exceeding a safety standard by applying track recording data got through Integrated Measurement. This method is advantage of being easy of the maintenance assesment in case of the running safety, but is disadvantage of being difficult in case of the riding comfort of train. In this study, we propose track irregularity deviation of each track system depending on the time series and present about utilization plans of the Track Irregularity Progress Rate.

• 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.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.143-168
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• 2015

A numerical model for analyzing air-train-track interaction is proposed to investigate the dynamic behavior of a high-speed train running on a track in crosswinds. The model is composed of a train-track interaction model and a train-air interaction model. The train-track interaction model is built on the basis of the vehicle-track coupled dynamics theory. The train-air interaction model is developed based on the train aerodynamics, in which the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method is employed to deal with the dynamic boundary between the train and the air. Based on the air-train-track model, characteristics of flow structure around a high-speed train are described and the dynamic behavior of the high-speed train running on track in crosswinds is investigated. Results show that the dynamic indices of the head car are larger than those of other cars in crosswinds. From the viewpoint of dynamic safety evaluation, the running safety of the train in crosswinds is basically controlled by the head car. Compared with the generally used assessment indices of running safety such as the derailment coefficient and the wheel-load reduction ratio, the overturning coefficient will overestimate the running safety of a train on a track under crosswind condition. It is suggested to use the wheel-load reduction ratio and the lateral wheel-rail force as the dominant safety assessment indices when high-speed trains run in crosswinds.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1601-1606
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• 2011

The railway system consists of rolling stocks, facilities, electrical system, signaling and operation and so on, organically bound. Recently due to lots of train failures and accidents, especially the derailment related to track irregularity this year, all the people using the train are worried about railway safety and we paved the way for letting them knowing that all components of railway system are so important. As a result, most of developed countries operating railway have used to risk assessment methods about safety management to prevent railroad accidents in advance. The purpose of this paper is to find out how to closely apply to track field for risk assessment methods. Because there is no case to apply to and we're not interested in yet, despite of importance of track, in situations of higher train speed. Therefore, in this study we're going to investigate risk assessment methods and compare enire railway system with track system, eventually we want us try to present to safety management conditions necessary and secure safety improvement in track field.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.354-360
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• 2005

The railway track and the substructures constructed in the field test section of Kyongbu High Speed Line are the structures for HSL, for the first time designed and constructed by domestic technical group. It is very important to verify the local design criteria and specifications for these structures and also to assure the recordings for vibration or deflection produced on the essential parts of the structures. The study to verify the high-speed railway track performance and to ensure the run in safety on the track in curved section during the KTX run. Finally, the conclusion are drawn as follows. The measuring values of the deflection effort of the rail and displacement for verifying the track performance in the field test section of Kyoungbu HSL satisfy the criteria of the foreign countries (Japan and Germany). The measured value for the wheel load and the presumed value show the consistent tendency. The wheel loads of the exterior and interior of the rails at the speed superior to 300km/h are measured same. Finally, the comparison between the theoretical value presented during the verification of the derailment to evaluate the safety of the train run at the time of the detailed design of the track and the measured value in the field shows that the correct design of track structure was applied.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.89-94
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to estimate the dynamic behavior of a personal rapid transit(PRT) track system using a rail of rectangular tube section and a rail joint of sliding type, and to compare the results with the normal rail and rail joint of a PRT track system by performing field measurements using actual vehicles running along the service lines. The measured vertical displacement of rail and sleeper, and vertical acceleration of rail for the normal rail and rail joint section were found to be similar, and the rail joint of sliding type satisfied the design specifications of the track impact factor for a conventional railway track. The experimental results showed that the overall dynamic response of the rail joint were found to be similar to or less than that of the normal rail, therefore the rail joint of sliding type for PRT track system was sufficient to ensure a stability and safety of PRT track system.