Railway 2023 Full

Railway Engineering – An Introduction
J. Murali Krishnan
jmk@iitm.ac.in
April 2023 jmk@iitm 1

Copyright Caveat!
All the pictures are taken from various resources,
individual ack., is not given and none of them
are created by me.

References
• Simon Iwnicki (Ed.) (2006), Handbook of

Railway Vehicle Dynamics, CRC Press, 2020
(Soft copy available with me, please E-mail me if you
want)
– Chapter 6,7, 2 and 8 will be covered in these two
lectures

Let us watch two videos!
• A pantograph failure
• A token exchange system

What will you learn?
• Introduction to Railway Engineering (with a
touch of kinematics)
• Please note this is a one-semester (civil

engineering approach) or two-semester
course (civil engineering/mechanical
engineering approach)

Railways vs. TE1 and TE2
• Geometric Design of Railway Track
• Structural Design of Railway sub and super
structure
• Mechatronics for Railways
• Railway Traffic Engineering
• Railway Transportation Planning
• ITS for Railways
• Data Analytics for Railways
• High Speed Rail
Overview
• Introduction
• Railway track (chapter 6)
• Railway gauge (chapter 7)
• Railway vehicle dynamics (chapter 2)
• Why trains derail? (chapter 8)

Introduction
• Find out yourself the following:
– Total length of railway kilometer
– Different gauges
– Percentage of passenger and goods movement
compared to road traffic
• Railway Engineering – Truly interdisciplinary –

Civil/Mechanical/Electrical/Computer
Science/Engineering Science/Management/Humanities

Gauges and Track Width
Now you know why it is called as a TUBE!

Broad Gauge, Standard Gauge, and
Meter Gauge

Overview
• Introduction
• Why trains derail? – If we have time! (chapter 8)

Track and its components
Superstructure : rails, sleepers, ballast, and subballast
Substructure : subgrade, subground

High Speed Rail System
Development of CA mortar – currently a R&D project at IIT Madras

RAILS
• Smooth running surfaces
for the train wheels
• Guide the wheelsets
• Vertical load, lateral load,
longitudinal load
• Electrical conductors for
signaling system
Charles Vignoles profile – 1830s

RAILPADS
The railpads protect the sleepers from wear and impact damage, and
they provide electrical insulation of the rails.
Do you think the railpads
should be stiff? or soft?

SLEEPERS
IIT Madras provided the

First design for
prestressed concrete
sleeper to the country

Sleepers
• Support of the rails and preserve gauge, level,

and alignment of the track
• Transmit vertical, lateral, and longitudinal
forces from the rail down to the ballast
• Provide electrical insulation between the two
rails

Ballast
Ballast layer supports the track (the rails and the sleepers)
against vertical and lateral forces from the trains
Subballast

Subballast

Subballast
• Transition layer between the upper layer of

large-particle, good quality ballast and the
lower layer of fine-graded subgrade
• Should prevent the mutual penetration of the

subgrade and the ballast and to reduce frost
penetration
What is the function of the track?
• TO GUIDE THE TRAIN
• TO CARRY THE LOAD

Wheel – Rail Contact – Hertzian Contact
Theory
© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Highway
What is the relation between tire pressure and
contact pressure?

Super-Structure – Substructure Models
1. Beam (rail) on continuous elastic foundation
2. Moving mass on simply supported beam
3. Beam (rail) on discrete supports
4. Beam (rail) on discrete supports including
ballast model
5. Beams (rails) on sleepers embedded in
continuum

Winkler Foundation

Moving Mass on Simply Supported
Beam (Vehicle – Bridge Interaction)
Natural frequency – dynamic impact factor of 2.5

Rail on Discrete Supports
Rail : Euler–Bernoulli/Rayleigh–Timoshenko beam

Railpads : Spring – damper systems
Sleepers :Rigid masses
Ballast : Spring – damper systems.
Beam (rail) on discrete supports including
ballast model
Four resonance vibration modes (a) embankment vibration, (b) track-on-

the-ballast vibration, (c) rail-on-railpad vibration, and (d) pinned –
pinned vibration of the rail

Settlement of Track Systems
Bridge approach Embankment
Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Numerical Models (FEM)

Overview
• Introduction

What is Railway Gauge?
Rail vehicles ﬁt through the infrastructure and
pass by each other in safety!

Vehicle Gauge and Structure Gauge
• Vehicles (mechanical engineer) to a maximum
vehicle (or load) gauge and infrastructure
(civil engineer - structures) to a minimum
structure gauge
• Clearance
• Train sway, Wobbling, Distance at platform

and “UNKNOWNS”!!!!
Vehicle Gauge

Structure Gauge

Kinematic Envelope
The space required by a given vehicle, moving at
speed

Aside
How do you determine the lane

width in a highway?

Swept Gauge

Kinematic Considerations
• Sway and roll drop due to curving forces
• Sway, lift, and drop due to motion
• Drops due to loading and suspension
condition
• Vertical vehicle tolerances
• Lateral vehicle tolerances
• Lateral, vertical, and roll due to tilting
suspension
Aside – Can you explain?

Curve Overthrow
Do bogies/wagon trace a chord or curve?
Overthrow at a point on a vehicle

body is the difference between the
radial distance from the track
centreline to the point, and the
lateral distance from the vehicle
centreline to the point
Highway Vs. Railway

Can you derive the previous formula?

Overview
• Introduction

Rail – Wheel System!

Hunting and Railway Wheelset
Reference position: Track is perfectly straight, and that the

wheelset is centrally aligned on the track, pointing straight
ahead
April 2023
with the axle at right jmk@iitm
angles to the rails. 48
No track is perfectly straight!

Outer wheel rides and inner wheel
descends

Self-steering

Kinematic Oscillation – Klingel Effect – First
set of approximations
Speed increases, frequency of the kinematic

oscillation also will increase!
KLINGEL, W (1883), Uber den Lauf der Eisenbahnwagen auf Gerarder Bahn.
April 2023 jmk@iitm Organ für die Fortschritte des Eisenbahnwesens, 38,52113-123
Kinematic Oscillation

Kinematic Oscillation in a Curve!

What can upset self-steering?
April 2023
Wheel Flat
jmk@iitm 55
Klingel and Hunting

Bogie design, Hunting and Klingel

Overview
• Introduction
• Why trains derail? (chapter 8)

Train Derailment

Train Derailment - Causes
• Wheel flange climb
• Gauge widening
• Rail rollover
• Track panel shift

FLANGE CLIMB DERAILMENT
• Wheel flange climb derailments are
caused by wheels climbing onto the top
of the railhead then further running over
the rail
Flange Climb Derailment
• Occur on curves
• High lateral force
• Reduced vertical force on flange

Wheel Climb Process

Flange Climb Derailment

Nadal’s formula – Flange mounting

DERAILMENTS CAUSED BY GAUGE
WIDENING AND RAIL ROLLOVER

DERAILMENT CAUSED BY TRACK PANEL
SHIFT

DERAILMENT CAUSED BY VEHICLE
LATERAL INSTABILITY

Summarize
• Keywords please!

Watch this movie clip and let me know
why this is not possible! Relate it to
the discussion in this class
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_52LxCN3KE0

One final question?
• What is so unique about the door locking
mechanism in an Indian Railway wagon?

Best of luck!

Railway 2023 Full

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Railway Engineering – An Introduction

April 2023 jmk@iitm 1

All the pictures are taken from various resources,

individual ack., is not given and none of them

are created by me.

April 2023 jmk@iitm 2

• Simon Iwnicki (Ed.) (2006), Handbook of

April 2023 jmk@iitm 3

• A token exchange system

April 2023 jmk@iitm 4

• Please note this is a one-semester (civil

April 2023 jmk@iitm 5

• Railway track (chapter 6)

• Railway gauge (chapter 7)

• Railway vehicle dynamics (chapter 2)

• Why trains derail? (chapter 8)

• Railway Engineering – Truly interdisciplinary –

April 2023 jmk@iitm 8

Now you know why it is called as a TUBE!

April 2023 jmk@iitm 9

April 2023 jmk@iitm 10

• Railway track (chapter 6)

• Railway gauge (chapter 7)

• Railway vehicle dynamics (chapter 2)

• Why trains derail? – If we have time! (chapter 8)

Superstructure : rails, sleepers, ballast, and subballast

Substructure : subgrade, subground

Development of CA mortar – currently a R&D project at IIT Madras

April 2023 jmk@iitm 13

April 2023 jmk@iitm 14

April 2023 jmk@iitm 16

IIT Madras provided the

April 2023 jmk@iitm 17

• Support of the rails and preserve gauge, level,

April 2023 jmk@iitm 18

April 2023 jmk@iitm 20

April 2023 jmk@iitm 21

• Transition layer between the upper layer of

• Should prevent the mutual penetration of the

• TO GUIDE THE TRAIN

• TO CARRY THE LOAD

April 2023 jmk@iitm 23

© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

April 2023 jmk@iitm 24

What is the relation between tire pressure and

April 2023 jmk@iitm 25

April 2023 jmk@iitm 26

April 2023 jmk@iitm 27

Natural frequency – dynamic impact factor of 2.5

Rail : Euler–Bernoulli/Rayleigh–Timoshenko beam

Four resonance vibration modes (a) embankment vibration, (b) track-on-

April 2023 jmk@iitm 30

Bridge approach Embankment

Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

April 2023 jmk@iitm 31

April 2023 jmk@iitm 32

• Railway track (chapter 6)

• Railway gauge (chapter 7)

• Railway vehicle dynamics (chapter 2)

• Why trains derail? – If we have time! (chapter 8)

Rail vehicles ﬁt through the infrastructure and

pass by each other in safety!

April 2023 jmk@iitm 34