New Transition Wedge Design Composed by Prefabricated Reinforced Concrete Slabs

Abstract

Important track degradation occurs in structure-embankment transitions, in which an abrupt change in track vertical stiffness arises, leading to a reduction in passengers comfort and safety. Although granular wedges are suggested by different railroad administrations as a solution to avoid these problems, they present some disadvantages which may affect track long-term performance. In this paper, a new solution designed with prefabricated reinforced concrete slabs is proposed. The aim of this solution is to guarantee a continuous and gradual track vertical stiffness transition in the vicinity of structures, overcoming granular wedges disadvantages. The aim of this study is to assess the performance of the novel wedge design by means of a 3-D FEM model and to compare it with the current solution.

Numerical Modelling of Building Vibrations due to Railway Traffic: Analysis of the Mitigation Capacity of a Wave Barrier

“…m has been considered, thus accounting for sleepers. On the other hand, the size in the cross-sectional directions is m and m, respectively, which is enough to avoid boundary-related wave reflection problems (no absorbing boundaries have been used) and still ensures an acceptable computational cost [25,31]. An overview of the global setup of the model is shown in Figure 2.…”