Experimental and numerical assessment of the lateral resistance of ballasted railway track equipped with mid-winged sleeper

Tendency of engineers toward continuous welded rails and its beneficial effects have raised the importance of lateral stability in railways. Small radius curves of tracks and temperature variations cause lateral force in tracks. There are different procedures to increase the lateral resistance of railway tracks. These methods are implemented using different materials by changing the size, geometry and dimensions of track components, especially sleepers. Although there are studies conducted on winged sleepers, utilizing mid-winged sleepers with modified geometry and dimension is considered in this research. Winged sleepers considerably increase the lateral resistance of tracks. However, some operational problems exist in its maintenance as the collision between wings of sleepers and tamping machine tines occurs. In this study, a number of experimental tests and numerical modeling were conducted on the lateral resistance of conventional and mid-winged sleepers. The lateral resistant force of tracks was measured by track panel loading test and single sleeper push test. The results revealed that by changing the conventional track to the mid-winged track, the lateral resistance increased considerably. The mid-winged panels tests, single mid-winged sleeper tests and numerical modeling indicate 58% to 64% increase in lateral resistance of mid-wing track compared with the conventional tracks.