Influence of train speed and its mitigation measures in the short- and long-term performance of a ballastless transition zone

Abstract

The ballastless track is nowadays the most popular railway system due to the required low number of maintenance operations and costs, despite the high investment. The gradual change from ballasted to ballastless tracks has been occurring in Asia, but also in Europe, increasing the number of transition zones. The transition zones are a special area of the railway networks where there is an accelerated process of track degradation, which is a major concern of the railway infrastructure managers. Thus, the accurate prediction of the short- and long-term performance of ballastless tracks in transition zones is an important topic in the current paradigm of building/rehabilitating high-speed lines. This work purposes the development of an advanced 3D model to study the global performance of a ballastless track in an embankment–tunnel transition zone considering the influence of the train speed (220, 360, 500, and 600 km/h). Moreover, a mitigation measure is also adopted to reduce the stress and displacements levels of the track in the transition. A resilient mat placed in the tunnel and embankment aims to soften the transition. The behaviour of the track with the resilient mat is evaluated considering the influence of the train speed, with special attention regarding the critical speed. The used methodology is a novel and hybrid approach that allows including short-term and long-term performance, through the development of a powerful 3D model combined with the implementation of a calibrated empirical permanent deformation model.