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Simulating train moving loads in physical model testing of railway infrastructure and its numerical calibration

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Abstract

Ballastless high-speed railways have dynamic performances that are quite different from those of conventional ballasted railways. The essential dynamic characteristics of high-speed railways due to passing train wheels, such as the cyclic effect, moving effect, and speed effect, were put forward and discussed. A full-scale accelerated railway testing platform for ballastless high-speed railways was proposed in this study. The feasibility of the sequential loading method in simulating train moving loads, and the boundary effect of the proposed physical model of ballastless railways, was investigated using three-dimensional finite element models. A full-scale physical model, 5 m long, 15 m wide, and 6 m high, was then established according to practical engineering design methods. Using a sequential loading system composed of eight high-performance hydraulic actuators, loads of a moving train with highest speed of 360 km/h were simulated. Preliminary experimental results of vibration velocities were presented and compared with field measurements of the Wuguang high-speed railway in China. Results showed that the experimental results coincided with the field measurements, demonstrating that the full-scale accelerated railway testing platform can simulate the process of a moving train and realistically reproduce the dynamic behaviors of ballastless high-speed railways.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51178418, 51222803 and 51225804) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are grateful to Mr. Xiang Xu for his assistance in the model testing.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, MOE, Zhejiang University, Room B507, Anzhong Building of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Hongguang Jiang

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, MOE, Zhejiang University, Room B406, Anzhong Building of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Xuecheng Bian

  3. Institute of Hydraulic Structure and Water Environment, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Chong Cheng

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, MOE, Zhejiang University, Room A425, Anzhong Building of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Yunmin Chen

  5. Department of Civil Engineering, Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, MOE, Zhejiang University, Room A428, Anzhong Building of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Renpeng Chen

Authors
  1. Hongguang Jiang
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  2. Xuecheng Bian
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  3. Chong Cheng
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  4. Yunmin Chen
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  5. Renpeng Chen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xuecheng Bian.

Additional information

Invited Paper from the International Symposium on Geotechnical Engineering for High-speed Transportation Infrastructure (IS-GeoTrans 2012), October 26 to 28 2012, Hangzhou, China. Co-Editors Prof. Xiong (Bill) Yu, Case Western Reserve University, USA and Prof. Renpeng Chen, Zhejiang University, China.

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Jiang, H., Bian, X., Cheng, C. et al. Simulating train moving loads in physical model testing of railway infrastructure and its numerical calibration. Acta Geotech. 11, 231–242 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0327-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0327-y

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