Railway Bridge Engineering - Rail Structure Interaction

Rails are continuously welded and thus, the length of one rail is longer than 200m. Hence when temperature rises: track deformation (buckling of rail) occurs and when temperature drops: fracture failure occurs.

Necessity of Continuous Welded Rail - The reduced impact force in the rails increases the life span of the rails and improves the ride quality. - The decreasing noise and vibration by the reduced impact force.

Impact of Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) :

- The bridges designed under the assumption that they are simply supported, do not behave structurally as they are designed.

- Relative displacements of the track and of the bridge,caused by the combination of the effects of thermal variations, train braking and traction forces, as well as deflection of the deck under vertical traffic loads traffic loads,lead to the track/bridge phenomenon that results in additional stresses to the bridge and the track.

Rail Structure Interaction Analysis

- Charts based on UIC 774-3

- Model the bridge, track and approaches and find out the result using FEM based softwares.