Assessing track geometry quality based on wavelength spectra and track–vehicle dynamic interaction

A contribution for integrated analysis of railway track performance at transition zones and other discontinuities

“…For example, defects in the range D1 influence not only the resonance phenomena in sprung masses, but also semi-sprung masses of the vehicles and significantly contribute to situations of track degradation. This aspect is well documented in the literature [2][3][4]13] and was clearly demonstrated in a recent numerical parametric study carried out by the authors [30].…”

“…While previous studies addressed the influence of the vertical stiffness on the degradation of the track [26], others did not take into account adequate representation of the variable conditions of the substructure, used a simplified numerical representation of the track substructure [14,[27][28][29]. Only a few studies seem to have focused on the relationship between the wavelength and amplitude of the defects and the track degradation or train-track interaction [3,13], though without accounting for the influence of the variable characteristics of the substructure. Questions of how changes in the physical and mechanical characteristics of the track superstructure and substructure -track discontinuities -influence the evolution of track geometry defects and how different wavelengths and amplitudes of these defects affect degradation, running safety and ride comfort are rarely addressed in the literature.…”

“…Despite past effort to understand the complex behaviour of railway tracks, enhance its performance [9][10][11][12] and develop tools to help in the asset management process [13][14][15][16] needed on the relationship between the characteristics of the train-track system and the development of track geometry defects [17]. Previous studies focused mostly on the influence of track geometry defects on the vehicle dynamics, in terms of ride comfort and derailment risk [3,14,[18][19][20][21][22], while others focused on the wheel-rail interface [23][24][25].…”

Railway track quality assessment method based on vehicle system identification

“…Li, Berggren, Berg, Persson, 2008;Berggren, Li, Sp€ a annar, 2008;Vermeij, de Graaf, van Ginkel, 2006). …”

Numerical Synthesis of the Track Alignment and Applications. Part I: The Synthesis Method

“…In this context, the track irregularities may be introduced in the computational models as stochastic data characterized by the power spectral density [8,14,15,23,24].…”