The effect of imperfections on the vertical buckling of railroad tracks

Details

• Creators:
  El-Aini, Yehia M.
• Corporate Creators:
  Princeton University ; John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Buckling
  • High temperature
  • Structural design
  • Dislocation (Geology)
  • Thermal stresses
  • Heat
  • Railroad tracks
  • Vertical buckling
  • Imperfect tracks
  • Thermal buckling
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT-TSC-FRA-75-17 ; FRA-OR&D-76-09
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Abstract:
  This report deals with an analytical prediction of the effect of geometric imperfections on the post-buckling characteristics of railroad tracks. The analysis is restricted to the case of vertical track buckling due to constrained thermal expansion in which the track is assumed to lift itself up over a finite span. The imperfections are categorized into two cases. Case (A) in which the region of imperfection is larger than the span of lift-off and Case (B) in which the imperfection region is smaller than the span of lift-off. It is shown that while a perfectly straight track does not exhibit bifurcation points from the undeformed state, the imperfect track does and that the bifurcation temperature in Case (A) is lower than in Case (B) for the same ratio of imperfection amplitudes reduces the bifurcation temperatures significantly. It is found that the bifurcation temperature as well as the safe temperature increase are higher for heavier tracks.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  RR519/R6321
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9756/dot_9756_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.10 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center ; Federal Railroad Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7e98c2dc3ad10f0e1195e2ab39fe3170e388070b6468515dc4836b6bc7f7db4d