Actions on a railway track, due to an isolated defect

Abstract

The rail running table imposes to the vehicle a forced vibration. It is not smooth but instead it comprises a lot of faults that give to the rail running table a random surface. Furthermore under the primary suspension there are the Unsprung Masses which act without any dumping directly on the track panel. On the contrary the Sprung (Suspended) Masses that are cited above the primary suspension of the vehicle, act through a combination of springs and dumpers on the track. A part of the track mass is also added to the Unsprung Masses, which participates in their motion. The defects with long wavelength, which play a key role, on the dynamic component of the acting loads on the railway track, are analyzed using the second order differential equation of motion. A parametric investigation is performed for the case of an isolated defect. © 2014 SERSC.