Development of Design Guidelines for High-speed Railway Track Including Critical Track Velocities and Track Mitigation Strategies
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Engineering
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Connolly D
(2013)
Optimising low acoustic impedance back-fill material wave barrier dimensions to shield structures from ground borne high speed rail vibrations
in Construction and Building Materials
Connolly D
(2013)
Numerical modelling of ground borne vibrations from high speed rail lines on embankments
in Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering
Connolly D
(2014)
Assessment of railway vibrations using an efficient scoping model
in Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering
Connolly D
(2014)
Field testing and analysis of high speed rail vibrations
in Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering
Connolly D
(2014)
Scoping prediction of re-radiated ground-borne noise and vibration near high speed rail lines with variable soils
in Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering
Connolly D
(2015)
Benchmarking railway vibrations - Track, vehicle, ground and building effects
in Construction and Building Materials
Connolly D
(2015)
A higher order perfectly matched layer formulation for finite-difference time-domain seismic wave modeling
in GEOPHYSICS
Connolly D
(2015)
Use of Conventional Site Investigation Parameters to Calculate Critical Velocity of Trains from Rayleigh Waves
in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
De Bold R
(2015)
Benchmarking large scale GPR experiments on railway ballast
in Construction and Building Materials
Giannakis I
(2014)
A Novel Piecewise Linear Recursive Convolution Approach for Dispersive Media Using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method
in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
| Description | At the start of the project, the international railway industry lacked knowledge of the implications of generating Rayleigh waves from the passage of a high speed train. By demystifying the geodynamics, railway engineers have a number of new approaches available: (1) We have published papers explaining how to model ground borne vibrations from trains. We have reinforced the understanding that train and track critical velocity are related to Rayleigh wave velocity. (2) We have published a paper on how to relate conventional site investigation soil parameters to train critical velocity and track critical velocity. This work demystifies railway geodynamics for the practising engineer. It addresses simple questions such as - "can I increase the train speed by 20 miles/hour on a particular stretch of track". Practical investigation techniques are outlined. Also in this work, it was shown that higher plasticity soils are more prone to have lower Rayleigh wave velocities - thus giving rise to potential problems. (3) We have shown that increasing the stiffness of a railway embankment raises the Rayleigh wave velocity and thus increases the train critical velocity and the track critical velocity. This has the obvious practical application that existing weak railway embankments - perhaps 100+ years old - may need to be strengthened to accommodate higher speed trains. In the case of new embankments, for new high speed trains - the embankments must be engineered fills, i.e. well compacted. (4) We have established, and published, guidelines on using trenches, backfilled with low acoustic impedance materials, to interrupt ground borne vibrations from high speed trains. This is a practical solution to a growing international problem. |
| Exploitation Route | Our research may be taken forward in a number of ways including: • Continuing the development of a robust 3-D finite element model, using a commercially validated and secure FE package, calibrated on real world data. This research has illustrated the values of such a commercial package, in our case Abaqus. • Our guidance on using conventional site investigation (SI) data to establish Rayleigh wave velocities - provides an opportunity for designers, contractors and SI companies to predict potential Rayleigh wave velocities at an early stage, and at a reasonable cost. This could be an internationally "game changing" tool. • Our work on embankment stabilisation and design has set an agenda to be followed by designers and contractors in order to provide realistic and long-term effective embankment design solutions. • Given that ground borne vibrations from high speed trains are inevitable - our work on using trenches backfilled with low acoustic impedance materials to interrupt ground borne vibrations from high speed trains, could be developed into an international solution to this problem. |
| Sectors | Construction,Transport |
| URL | http://www.erpe.ac.uk/research/infrastructure-environment/railway-engineering |
| Description | Membership of the (US) National Academies Transportation Research Board Committee AR050 Railroad Track Structure System Design |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Influencing railroad construction and maintenance practice |
| Description | EPSRC IAA Fund |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2015 |
| End | 03/2016 |
| Description | Collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Organisation | University of Massachusetts |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our team in Edinburgh provided the manpower and computational resources. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Our partners provided finite element expertise. |
| Impact | No outputs yet |
| Start Year | 2015 |