Fundamentals of Railway Design

270 Pages·2023·11.579 MB·English

by  Marco Guerrieri

Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
Marco Guerrieri
Fundamentals
of Railway
Design
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
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Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Marco di Prisco, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
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Athens, Athens, Greece
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Marco Guerrieri
Fundamentals of Railway
Design
Marco Guerrieri
Department of Civil, Mechanical
and Environmental Engineering (DICAM)
University of Trento
Trento, Italy
ISSN 2366-259X ISSN 2366-2603 (electronic)
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering
ISBN 978-3-031-24029-4 ISBN 978-3-031-24030-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24030-0
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Preface
This book offers a concise overview of the methods and criteria adopted for the
design of railway infrastructures. Conventional railways are considered together with
high-speed railways, tramways, metros, maglev, hyperloop systems, people movers,
monorails and rack railways. Every system of transport is described in its main tech-
nical characteristics, capacities and construction costs. It is an introductory book to
specific topics of the railway engineering field, and thus, the mathematical treatment
is purposely brief and simplified.
The book is organized as follows:
Chapter 1 deals with the main descriptive models of train resistance which can be
interestingly applied in designing railway lines as well as managing and regulating
traffic flows.
Chapter 2 describes the various aspects influencing the (vertical and horizontal)
alignment of ordinary and high-speed railways.
Chapter 3 deals with the principles involved in the construction of ballasted
(conventional) tracks and ballastless (slab) tracks.
Chapter 4 deals with the analysis of the contact area between wheel and rail and the
pressure distribution obtained by applying Hertz’s theory. Since railway accidents
result in a heavy loss of life and property damage, the chapter also analyses the
derailment risk levels according to Nadal’s formula.
Chapter 5 briefly describes the criteria for calculating ballasted tracks.
Chapter 6 presents the technique for analysing the track efficiency and especially
the conformity of several geometric parameters of the track to normative threshold
values.
Chapter 7 presents the main characteristics and classifications of switches and
crossings.
Chapter 8 describes railway line configurations (i.e. single-track, double-track,
triple-track and quadruple-track lines) and railway station types (e.g. wayside
stations, junctions, terminals and seaport stations).
Chapter 9 classifies and briefly describes the main types of bridges which are
commonly used in ordinary and high-speed railway lines.
v
vi Preface
Chapter 10 illustrates some techniques for tunnel design starting from the rock
mass classifications.
Chapter 11 presents some traffic management systems (TMSs) and describes some
models for evaluating station and line capacity with automated block and mobile
block systems.
Chapter 12 briefly describes the technical characteristics of high-speed railways,
the Transrapid and Hyperloop systems.
Chapter 13 illustrates the technical characteristics of heavy and light metros.
Chapter 14 deals with the main technical characteristics of tramways with
conventional and ground-level power supply systems.
Finally, Chap. 15 deals briefly with the key technical characteristics of people
movers, monorails and rack railways.
The book is addressed to civil engineering students, young engineers working in
the field of railway design, as well as to engineers unfamiliar with railway engineering
topics.
This book first appeared in Italian in 2017 under the title Infrastruttureferroviarie,
metropolitane, tranviarie e per ferrovie speciali—Elementi di pianificazione e di
progettazione: this is the English version, revised and expanded. Special thanks are
due to Giuseppina Zummo for her professional competence and accuracy in the
English translation.
Palermo, Italy Marco Guerrieri
Contents
1 Train Resistance and Braking Distance .......................... 1
1.1 Adhesion Force .......................................... 1
1.2 Resistances to Movement .................................. 4
1.2.1 Resistance on Horizontal and Straight Tracks ......... 4
1.2.2 Resistance Due to Gradient ......................... 8
1.2.3 Resistance Due to Curvature ........................ 10
1.2.4 Resistance Due to Inertia .......................... 11
1.3 The Traction Force and Electric Traction Standards
in Europe ............................................... 13
1.4 Line Performance Levels .................................. 13
1.5 Line Virtuality Levels ..................................... 14
1.6 The Braking Distance ..................................... 15
References .................................................... 19
2 The Alignment Design of Ordinary and High-Speed Railways ..... 21
2.1 Track Gauge ............................................. 21
2.2 Horizontal Alignment ..................................... 24
2.2.1 Straight Sections .................................. 24
2.2.2 Circular Curves ................................... 25
2.3 Speeds on Railway Lines .................................. 31
2.4 Transition Curves ........................................ 37
2.4.1 Transverse Jerk ................................... 40
2.4.2 Roll Speed ....................................... 41
2.4.3 The Lifting Speed ................................. 41
2.4.4 Superelevation Profile ............................. 42
2.4.5 Transition Curves: The Cubic Parabola ............... 43
2.4.6 Design of the Cubic Parabola with the Preserved
Radius Method ................................... 46
2.4.7 Design of the Cubic Parabola with the Preserved
Centre Method ................................... 47
2.4.8 Transition Curves: The Clothoid .................... 48
vii
viii Contents
2.5 Minimum Permissible Length of Straights and Circular
Curves .................................................. 51
2.6 The Vertical Alignment ................................... 51
2.6.1 Maximum Gradient and Minimum Length
of Grades ........................................ 52
2.6.2 Vertical Curves ................................... 53
2.7 Three-Dimensional Alignment ............................. 55
2.8 Double-Track Railway Line ................................ 55
References .................................................... 56
3 The Railway Track ............................................ 57
3.1 Rails ................................................... 59
3.1.1 Rail Joints and Welding of Rails .................... 61
3.2 Sleepers ................................................ 63
3.2.1 Mono-block Prestressed Concrete Sleepers ........... 64
3.2.2 Twin-Block Reinforced Concrete Sleepers ............ 64
3.2.3 Unconventional Sleepers ........................... 66
3.3 Fastenings ............................................... 66
3.4 Rail Pads ................................................ 69
3.5 Ballast Bed .............................................. 69
3.6 The Sub-ballast and the Over Compacted Subgrade Soils ...... 71
3.7 The Elastic Sub-ballast Mat ................................ 72
3.8 Subgrade and Formation .................................. 73
3.8.1 Embankment Sections ............................. 73
3.8.2 Cut Sections ..................................... 74
3.9 The Slab Track ........................................... 74
References .................................................... 78
4 Wheel-Rail Interaction and Derailment Analysis ................. 79
4.1 The Contact Area Between Wheel and Rail .................. 79
4.2 The Adhesion Modifiers ................................... 82
4.3 The Derailment Risk and Nadal’s Formula ................... 83
References .................................................... 87
5 Introduction to Railway Track Design ........................... 89
5.1 Track Loads ............................................. 89
5.1.1 Axle Loads ...................................... 89
5.1.2 The Equivalent Load .............................. 89
5.1.3 Vertical Wheel Load .............................. 91
5.1.4 Lateral Forces Acting on Rails ...................... 93
5.2 Lateral Force Acting on the Flat Framework of the Track ....... 94
5.2.1 Longitudinal Forces on the Track ................... 94
5.3 Dimensioning Criteria with Static Analysis .................. 95
5.3.1 Track Design in Case of Discrete Rail Support ........ 95
5.3.2 Track Design in Case of Continuous Rail Support ..... 97
5.3.3 Elastic Beam on an Elastic Foundation Model ......... 98
Contents ix
5.3.4 Concomitant Action of Several Wheel Loads ......... 101
5.3.5 The Jointed Rails ................................. 101
5.4 The Dynamic Amplification Factor ......................... 102
5.5 Bending Stress in the Rail Foot Centre ...................... 103
5.5.1 Stresses in the Rail Head ........................... 104
5.6 Sleeper Stresses .......................................... 106
5.7 Stresses on Ballast Bed and Formation ...................... 107
5.7.1 Odemark’s Method ................................ 108
References .................................................... 110
6 Railway Track Deterioration and Monitoring .................... 111
6.1 Track Geometry .......................................... 111
6.1.1 Gauge ........................................... 112
6.1.2 Alignment ....................................... 112
6.1.3 Longitudinal Level ................................ 112
6.1.4 Cross Level ...................................... 113
6.1.5 Cross Level Deviation ............................. 113
6.1.6 Superelevation Deficiency .......................... 113
6.1.7 Twist ............................................ 114
6.1.8 Vertical Rail Wear ................................ 114
6.1.9 45-Degree Rail Wear .............................. 114
6.1.10 Lateral Rail Wear ................................. 115
6.1.11 Other Geometric Parameters ........................ 115
6.1.12 Rail Defect Coding System ......................... 115
6.1.13 Fastening and Sleeper Examination .................. 119
6.2 Rail Corrugations ........................................ 119
6.3 The Rail Service Life ..................................... 122
6.4 The Track Geometric Quality Index ......................... 125
6.4.1 Deterioration Curves of the Quality Indices ........... 126
6.5 Diagnostic Devices ....................................... 128
References .................................................... 129
7 Basics of Switches and Crossings ............................... 131
7.1 Turnouts ................................................ 131
7.2 Speeds on Turnouts ....................................... 133
7.3 Curve Turnouts, Diamond Crossings and Crossovers .......... 133
References .................................................... 135
8 Railway Lines and Stations ..................................... 137
8.1 Classification ............................................ 137
8.2 Single-Track Lines ....................................... 137
8.3 Double-Track Lines ...................................... 138
8.4 Triple-Track Lines ........................................ 139
8.5 Quadruple-Track Lines .................................... 139
8.6 Parallel Lines and Alternative and Supplementary Routes ...... 139
8.7 Maximum Permissible Line Speed .......................... 140