Characteristics of stiffness–damping relationships in ballasted tracks for health condition evaluation

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe condition of ballasted track critically affects their safety and functionality. Several studies have focused on establishing guidelines for evaluating the condition of ballasted tracks. Light Falling Weight Deflectometer (LFWD) is considered as a quantitatively viable technique for conducting routine maintenance checks in Korea, serving as a potential replacement for impact sound assessment. LFWD measures the impact force applied to the sleeper and the resulting deflection, which provides the apparent stiffness and damping factor of the ballasted track. Finite element analysis (FEA) was adopted to simulate the LFWD tests as the ballasted tracks deteriorated. The FEA results revealed the influence of the deteriorated ballasted tracks on the stiffness-damping relationship. The characteristic curves of the apparent stiffness and damping factor derived from FEA were applied to investigate the condition of 12 ballasted tracks for high-speed trains in Korea. These investigations provided a visual representation of the progressive stages of deterioration in ballasted tracks.KEYWORDS: Ballasted trackunsupported sleeperhanging sleeperLFWDballast stiffnessstiffness–damping characteristic curve Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no known conflict of interests that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.Additional informationFundingThis research was supported by the 2019 Excellent Researcher Grant from Chung-Ang University and by KRRI PK2203B1(Development of Rail Life Extension Technology from In-situ Inspection) project.