Basic study on the evaluation of track components strength and running safety under repeated passage of vehicles on rail gaps

Abstract

In a section which a wireless train control system is installed and the track circuit is removed, it is difficult to detect rail broken. Under such circumstances, the vehicle is assumed to run repeatedly on rail gaps until rail broken is found by rail inspection or other means. Therefore, this study investigated the strength of the track components under condition of repeated passage at a rail broken section. Specifically, we fabricated a new falling weight test equipment which can apply the impact load of a vehicle passing through a rail broken section and then, the strength of track components was experimentally investigated by conducting repeated falling weight test. This test evaluates the plastic deformation of the rails and functional deterioration of the rail fastenings system in response to impact loads. In addition, in order to evaluate running safety considering repeated passage at a rail broken section, we created a vehicle running simulation model that takes into account damage condition of track components after a falling weight test. The results of the running simulation confirmed that the plastic deformation of the rails and damage to the rail fastening systems considered in this study do not have a significant impact on running safety.