Numerical investigation of the behavior of approach slabs in transition zone of ballasted track to box culvert in high-speed railway lines

One of the most important issues in operation of high-speed railway tracks is avoiding to sudden variation of the track stiffness. Culverts and bridges are common areas which this problem is occurred along the railway lines. One of the method for applying the gradual variation of the track stiffness in these areas is using the approach slabs in transition zone. Therefore, in this research it has attempted to study this problem using numerical simulation. In this regard, a typical culvert of Tehran-Qom-Esfahan high-speed railway line with 6.6 m length was simulated. Then for studying the effect of transition zones, an approach slab includes of three parts with 6m length and various thicknesses simulated by FE model. In this model the ballasted track and its components such as railpads, sleepers, ballast and subgrade were modeled as lumped mass-dashpot-spring systems and the rails, approach slabs and culvert were modeled by Euler-Bernoulli beam elements. Then the dynamic behavior of the transition zone investigated under the passing of the moving loads same as the axle loads of the ICE high speed train. In this matter a series of sensitivity analyses were carried out on some parameters such as vehicle speed, approach slab thickness as well as damping and stiffness of track. Consequently, the achieved results show that the increasing of damping and stiffness of the track cause to the ballast forces increased and in other side it causes to the acceleration and settlement of the ballasted track and the approach slabs decreased. These aforementioned effects are more obvious in damping values higher than 200 kN.sec/m and the track stiffness values in the range of 120 MN/m to 180 MN/m. Moreover, it was understood that increasing the approach slabs thickness has remarkable effect on improving the dynamic behavior of the transition zone especially in speeds more than 340 km/hr.