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Analysis of a moving load on Ballastless rail track

Conference Paper · December 2015

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 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE

50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India

Analysis of a moving load on Ballastless rail track

Pranjal Mandhaniya1, Sarvesh Chandra2

ABSTRACT

Traditional track designs are now in a process of change due to higher axle loads and faster speeds of trains.
The use of ballastless track is already popular in Europe for high speed tracks and the technology is well
established. In India, it is used in Metro projects and in recently constructed Peer Panjaal Tunnel in J & K.
The design criterion for its use in Indian conditions is still to be established. The ballastless track consists
of a continuous concrete slab resting on concrete/asphalt base layer supported on the subgrade. Though the
initial cost of the ballastless track is very high, the maintenance cost is less and the long term benefits like
reduction in life cycle cost and passenger comfort are there. There is an uncertainty in calculating overall
behavior of ballastless track because any ballastless line hasn't yet completed its design period. Apart from
that noise reduction is a major concern for ballastless tracks. Hence, ballastless track design also consists
of anti-noise mechanisms and elastic pads to damp the vibrations causing noise. Having that diverse nature
of analysis and design of ballastless track system, only geotechnical aspect of problem is being solved here.

In this paper, an attempt is made to analyze the ballastless track by modeling it as a 3D problem and the
solution is obtained using ABAQUS CAE FEM software package. Design similar to GETRAC® slab track
has been modeled, which consists of three layers - concrete bearing layer (CBL), hydraulically bonded layer
(HBL) and frost protection layer (FPL, for freezing temperatures) over subsoil base. In this study, FPL is
absent and replaced with a combination of HBL and CBL with variations in thickness. ABAQUS GUI is
used strictly without using any user subroutines to concentrate on the problem from physical point of view.
Solid deformable parts are used for rail track substructure and superstructure but wheel-axle part is rigid as
it is not to be analyzed for deflections. Convergence is achieved by automatic damping of stress wave in
material sections.
Mesh sizes are kept optimum to balance result precision and CPU time. Loading is done in Static/Linear
step and motion is performed in Dynamic/Implicit step. Time increment is decreased to make loading rate
consistent and to cope with non-linearity of loading. Indian broad gauge and UIC60 rails are used. Two
point loads of 100 kN at each wheel’s center is applied. Speed which are analyzed in presented model are
limited to subcritical i.e. resonant frequency of model shouldn’t reach. The results will improve our
understanding of the behavior of ballastless tracks.

Keywords: Ballastless, Railway, RHEDA, GETRAC, ABAQUS, FEM, Moving load

1
Undergraduate student, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India, pranjalm@iitk.ac.in
2
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India, sarv@iitk.ac.in
Pranjal Mandhaniya and Sarvesh chandra
 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE

50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India

Analysis of a moving load on Ballastless rail track

Pranjal Mandhaniya, Undergraduate student, Email: pranjalm@iitk.ac.in

Sarvesh Chandra, Professor, Email: sarv@iitk.ac.in

ABSTRACT: Ballastless track design similar to GETRAC® system is considered but Indian gauge is being used in
model presented in this paper. Moving load at different speed is applied and problem of moving load is analysed.
Most Ballastless track systems consist of three layers above subsoil base which are, frost protection layer (FPL),
hydraulically bonded layer (HBL) and concrete/asphalt bearing layer (CBL/ABL) respectively, above which
superstructure is placed. Frost protection is necessary in relatively cold regions like Germany but in the proposed
model it is replaced. Validation of moving load model is done by previous reference study. A relationship is
established between speed and deflection and lagging distance of maximum deflection.

INTRODUCTION subsoil, HBL, CBL, sleepers and rails. First three

Ballastless track systems are categorized in various
types as described below.
1. Discrete rail support
1.1. Sleepers or blocks encased in concrete.
1.2. Sleepers on top of asphalt/concrete layer.
1.3. Prefabricated concrete slabs.
1.4. Monolithic Designs.
2. Continuous Rail Support
2.1. Embedded Rail Structures.
2.2. Clamped and continuously supported rail.
GETRAC® system falls under sleepers/block on top
of concrete/asphalt layer with discrete supports.
Design presented in this paper is a combination of
GETRAC® and RHEDA system as the arrangement
is more suitable for Indian conditions i.e. more
competent with technology, skill and track laying
system available at present. Inspiration of this model
is directly taken from concrete reinforced
(ballastless) tracks which can be seen at many major
railway platforms. These are used because ballast
maintenance can’t be performed there due to
recurring use by trains.
MODELLING IN ABAQUS/CAE
ABAQUS/CAE uses GUI as well as command type
interface for design and analysis. In this model, only
GUI is used, not any subroutines. Presented model
consists of 5 deformable solid sections, which are
layers are modelled in single part and cutting planes
are used to divide it in sections of different
properties. Sleeper and rail are modelled as
individual part and same pattern is used to replicate
them over length. Sleepers are placed over CBL and
rails over sleepers with tied constraints (mutual
motion of contact surfaces). Fixed (Encastre)
boundary condition is applied to all subsoil surfaces
except at top. All other surfaces are free for any kind
of motion. Moving load is modelled as a wheel-axle
assembly (half-bogie) of negligible mass loaded at
its ends at periphery placed over rails with general
contact condition including no friction. For motion,
half-bogie is coupled with centre of any wheel face
and it is constrained with rigid body condition as it
should pass load to structure but shouldn’t deform
itself by reactive force. Motion of half-bogie is
studied using displacement boundary condition over
dynamic/implicit step of different time spans for
different speeds.
Dimensions and properties of layers are given in
Table-1. Also, a visual of 3D model in ABAQUS is
provided. Model is 300 meters long with rails
dimensions similar to UIC60. Loads of 100kN at
each wheel is applied (gross load = 200kN) and
loading is done gradually in 0.1 seconds interval.
After that, load is moved to 100m with speeds of
200, 150, 100, 50 km/h.
Pranjal Mandhaniya and Sarvesh chandra
Table 1: Properties of the model components
Model Unit weight Modulus of
Components (kg/m³) elasticity, (Gpa)
Rail (steel) 7850 207
Sleeper (M70) 2400 70
CBL (M35) 2400 35
HBL 2400 5 0.2
Subsoil 2000 0.01
Figure 1: ABAQUS model
Design Philosophy
Choosing a length of 300m is adopted based on
elaborate previous analysis. Actual analysis was
started with a model of 77.5m, which equals 5
BCNA coach length i.e. (5 x 15.5 m). Problem with
that model was that it cannot support natural
damping of displacement wave at higher speeds. If
a wave is generated in any medium it will damp to
almost zero amplitude at some point say infinity but
an assumption is made about threshold amplitude
below which there is negligible displacement that
will help reducing a problem from infinite length to
finite length. Although length and threshold
amplitude can be manipulated to get finer results but
that requires High Performance Computing (HPC).
Concluding from above discussion, loading started
at a point 100m from fixed end and moved to next
100m i.e. 100m from other fixed end. The analysis
of moving load is done in a domain of 100m, which
falls in the middle of whole model and 100m open
length on both sides left for damping effect.
Tetrahedral mesh of size = 1 is used for CBL, HBL,
subsoil and sleeper, size = 2 for rails is used. Mesh
sizes can be refined but that will increase analysis
time and convergence problems (very fine mesh
Poisson's Description (W x H x L)
ratio
0.28 UIC60 approximated
0.2 250 x 210 x 300000 mm3
0.2 3000 x 250 x 300000 mm3
4000 x 250 x 300000 mm3
0.4 12000 x 12000 x 300000 mm3
may cause very small element and hence its
distortion can be very high). Also subsoil section is
divided in two equal halves by cutting plane to
retain less CPU time caused by symmetric mesh on
both sides.
From the above, the accuracy of analysis can be
improved by increasing model length, refining mesh
sizes and using less value of maximum increment in
Dynamic/Implicit step. HPC can be used to decrease
CPU time.
VALIDATION
Verification of analysis of presented model is done
with two sources - Mallick et al.2005 and Feng et
al.2011. Mallick et al.2005 studied the behaviour of
a moving load over an infinite Euler-Bernoulli beam
under a range of velocities i.e. subcritical to
supercritical velocities. On the other hand, this
paper analyses solid model with finite length hence
the assembly has a specific resonant frequency. This
causes recursive or abnormal behaviour after a
specific speed as the deflections wave generated has
higher frequency then resonant frequency. Hence
the analysis for higher speeds is omitted in this
paper, although analysis at those speeds is also done.
Since comparing these results with beam element
models give us little verification hence verification
from Feng (2011) solid model in ABAQUS is also
done.
1. Mallick et al., 2005, states that point of
maximum deflection shifts behind the load
with increasing speed. As shown in Fig.2,
increment in velocity ratio for subcritical
speeds cause increase in deflection and
lagging behind of maximum deflection
point.
 50th INDIAN GEOTECHNICAL CONFERENCE

50th
IGC
17th – 19th DECEMBER 2015, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Venue: College of Engineering (Estd. 1854), Pune, India

Figure 2: Mallick et al. 2005 results Figure 4: Feng et al. 2011 Stress field along center
path (cut view)

Results obtained from presented model agrees with

above work. As shown in Fig.3, increasing speeds
cause increase in maximum deflection and lagging
behind of maximum deflection.
Figure 3: Vertical deflection at different speeds at
200m
Analysis with presented model verifies and extends
above results for ballastless rail track. Instead of a
bogie, presented model uses an axle-wheel
assembly.

Figure 5: Stress field for various speeds.

a. 50 kmph b. 100 kmph c. 150 kmph d. 200 kmph

2. Feng et al., 2011, which suggests increasing

train speed increases the stress field Fig.5 shows results from presented model for
influence zone and make it more abrupt. As subsoil section showing the area of interest where
shown in Fig.4, a bogie when passes over stress field is analysed.
ballasted structure for speeds in increasing
order, stress field increases in area and
becomes more abrupt or non-uniform.
Pranjal Mandhaniya and Sarvesh chandra
RESULTS
Above work is further extended in this study. Data
analyzed suggests that there is a linear relationship
between the lag distance of maximum deflection
and speed of the load.
Figure 6: Lag distance v/s speed plot
Also, further analysis of the results obtained from
the data shows that increasing speed (S) causes
increase in maximum downward deflection (MDD).
Given linear pattern found for model.
MDD = -1.763E-03 - 2.101E-05 *(S)
(MDD is in meters and S is in meter/second for
above equation)
Figure 7: Vertical deflection along loading
direction v/s Speed
Further results also indicate that increasing speed
also effects displacement field. Displacement field
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becomes more and more abrupt as the speed
increases and it got damped to negligible at fixed
ends but at higher speeds displacement field
increases. It also shows that increasing speed causes
higher longitudinal displacements.
Figure 8: Vertical Displacement curve for different
speeds at 200m MDD
CONCLUSIONS
1. Lag distance (m) for analysed set of speeds
(50, 100, 150, 200 km/h) is directly
proportional to given speed (km/h).
2. Vertical downward deflection and speed are
linearly proportional with an R-squared
value of 0.906.
3. Displacement wave effect increases similar
to stress field as speed of load increases.
REFERENCES
1. Mallik A.K., Chandra S., Singh A.B. (2005),
Steady-state response of an elastically supported
infinite beam to a moving load, Journal of
Sound And Vibrations, Elsevier, 291 (2006)
1148–1169.
2. Feng H. (2011), 3D-models of Railway Track,
Division of Highway and Railway Engineering
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.
3. Michas, G. (2012), Slab Track Systems for
High-Speed Railways, Division of Highway and
Railway Engineering, KTH, Stockholm,
Sweden.