Track-ground vibrations induced by rail traffic, Chapter 16 of the book "Innovative Numerical Modelling in Geomechanics

Abstract

This chapter is about the numerical modeling of vibrations induced by railway traffic. Due to the specific aspects of this kind of problems, where very large domains need to be considered, a particular type of numerical models is presented, denoted as 2.5D. The numerical model developed by the authors is able to deal efficiently with the train-track-ground dynamic interaction. The track-ground system is simulated by a 2.5D approach based on the finite elements or boundary elements formulation and the train by a multi-body approach. After the description of the numerical model main characteristics, its ability for dealing with real situations is evaluated through the comparison between prediction and experimental results for two distinct case studies. The first case study regards to Ledsgard site, Sweden, and the capability of the numerical model for simulating the critical speed problem is tested. In the second case study, the numerical prediction of vibrations induced in the track and free-field is compared with experimental data collected in a test site developed by the authors in the Portuguese railway network, near to Carregado town.