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Discrete element method of improved performance of railway ballast bed using elastic sleeper

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Abstract

With the development of high-speed and heavy-haul railway in China, problems like insufficient thickness of ballast bed and overlarge track stiffness are obvious. Ballast may break into small particles and their contact status will deteriorate under cyclic loading, resulting in ballast degradation. Discrete element method (DEM) was used to research improved performance of ballast bed using elastic sleeper. Clusters were generated by bonding spheres to model real ballasts, while broken bonds were utilized to distinguish breakage. Two kinds of ballast beds with elastic sleeper and conventional sleeper were established, respectively. After applying cyclic loading to the models, differences of mechanical properties between two models were analyzed by contrasting their dynamic behavior indexes, such as particle contact force, sleeper settlement, vibration velocity and acceleration, breakage characteristic. The results illustrate that compared with conventional sleeper, elastic sleeper increases sleeper settlement, while reduces ballast vibration and contact force between particles, which could depress ballast breakage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Liang Gao  (高亮), Qi Luo  (罗奇), Yang Xu  (徐旸), Guo-qing Jing  (井国庆) & Han-ke Jiang  (蒋函珂)

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory for Railway Track Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Liang Gao  (高亮), Qi Luo  (罗奇), Yang Xu  (徐旸) & Han-ke Jiang  (蒋函珂)

Authors
  1. Liang Gao  (高亮)
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  2. Qi Luo  (罗奇)
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  3. Yang Xu  (徐旸)
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  4. Guo-qing Jing  (井国庆)
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  5. Han-ke Jiang  (蒋函珂)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liang Gao  (高亮).

Additional information

Foundation item: Project(U1234211) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(2013G009-B) supported by China Railway Corporation

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Gao, L., Luo, Q., Xu, Y. et al. Discrete element method of improved performance of railway ballast bed using elastic sleeper. J. Cent. South Univ. 22, 3223–3231 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-015-2860-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-015-2860-8

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