No abstract

Rail surface defects are a serious concern for railway infrastructure managers all around the world. They lead to poor ride quality due to excess vibration and noise; in rare cases, they can result in a broken rail and a train derailment. Defects are typically classified as ‘rail studs’ when they initiate from the white etching layer, and ‘rail squats’ when they initiate from rolling contact fatigue. This paper presents a novel investigation into rail squat initiation and growth simulations using peridynamic theory. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other comprehensive study of rail squats has been carried out using this approach. Peridynamics are well-suited for fracture problems, because, contrary to continuum mechanics, they do not use partial-differential equations. Instead, peridynamics use integral equations that are defined even when discontinuities (cracks, etc.) are present in the displacement field. In this study, a novel application of peridynamics to rail squats is verified against a finite element solution, and the obtained simulation results are compared with in situ rail squat measurements. Some new insights can be drawn from the results. The outcome exhibits that the simulated cracks initiate and grow unsymmetrically, as expected and reported in the field. Based on this new insight, it is apparent that peridynamic modelling is well-applicable to fatigue crack modeling in rails. Surprisingly, limitations to the peridynamic analysis code have also been discovered. Future work requires finding an adequate solution to the matter-interpenetration problem.

No abstract

Traffic load models available in building standards are most often developed for short or medium span bridges, however, it is necessary to develop traffic load models just for long span bridges, because the most unfavourable traffic situations are different. Weigh-in-Motion system data from highway A1 and A3 were used in this study. Measurement errors from data were cleaned using two groups of filters. The first group was based on vehicle validity codes recorded by both systems, if any circumstances might have influenced the measurements, the second group cleaned data using general filters for all vehicles and specific filters for trucks and cars. Additionally, vehicles were adjusted for influence of temperature. Data cleaning increased the average gross vehicle, so it could be considered as a conservative choice. Six traffic scenarios, each with different percentage of cars in the traffic, were made to assess the difference in loads from different traffic compositions. Traffic loads for long-span bridges were calculated using two approaches: the first assuming constant span length, the second, using influence lines from a bridge currently in design stage. Gumbel distribution were fitted to the calculate loads and they were extrapolated to probability of exceedance of 5% in 50 year period. Results show that influence line approach yield larger loads than those from constant-span. Both approaches result in loads larger than ones in Eurocode 1 Load Model 1, however, increase might have been caused by an increase in vehicle weight.