Modelling the dynamic response of railway track to wheel/rail impact loading

This paper describes the formulation and application of a dynamic model for a conventional rail track subjected to arbitary loading functions that simulate wheel/rail impact forces. The rail track is idealized as a periodic elastically coupled beam system resting on a Winkler foundation. Modal parameters of the track structure are first obtained from the natural vibration characteristics of the beam system, which is discretized into a periodic assembly of a specially-constructed track element and a single beam element characterized by their exact dynamic stiffness matrices. An equivalent frequency-dependent spring coefficient representing the resilient, flexural and inertial characteristics of the rail support components is introduced to reduce the degrees of freedom of the track element. The forced vibration equations of motion of the track subjected to a series of loading functions are then formulated by using beam bending theories and are reduced to second order ordinary differential equations through the use of mode summation with non-proportional modal damping. Numerical examples for the dynamic responses of a typical track are presented, and the solutions resulting from different rail/tie beam theories are compared.