Thermal buckling of railroad tracks in the lateral plane is an important problem in the design and maintenance of continuous welded rail (CWR) tracks. The problem is manifested through derailments which are attributable to track buckling, indicating a need for developing better control on the allowable safe temperature increase for CWR tracks. The work reported here is a part of a major investigation conducted by the Transportation Systems Center for the Federal Railroad Administration on the thermal buckling of CWR tracks in the lateral plane with the objective of developing guidelines and recommendations for buckling prevention. This report presents the results of Phase III dynamic buckling tests on tangent and curved tracks conducted in 1986 with the main objective of validating the safety limits under current development. The tracks were subjected to vehicular traffic at maximum permissible speeds with the rails artificially heated to the theoretical maximum allowable temperature. Test data on rail forces, lateral and longitudinal displacements, and L/V ratios were collected. The test results are compared with the theoretical predictions and conclusions of practical interest are presented.
Thermal buckling of railroad tracks in the lateral plane is an important problem in the design and maintenance of continuous welded rail (CWR) tracks....
Thermal buckling of railroad tracks in the lateral plane is an important problem in the design and maintenance of continuous welded rails (CWR). The s...
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United States Department of Transportation
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