PSI - Issue 17

Paulo Morais et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 17 (2019) 419–426

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Paulo Morais et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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Comparing these results with those obtained with the on-board instrumentation, it is possible to conclude that the developed solution identified the intended variations of functional and structural parameters of the railway line, since both methods showed the expected railway line stiffness variations.

4. Conclusions

The COURSE project comprised the design, development and demonstration of the applicability of an innovative and integrated approach to evaluate the performance of railway tracks. The new approach should also be able to identify the causes of common railway degradation defects. This paper presented an overall description the methodology used in this project to process the acquired data and determine the relevant structural railway track parameters, such as railway track vertical stiffness, some geometrical properties of the rails and characteristic resonance frequencies of the vehicle-rail dynamic interaction. It also presented the results obtained from the first test using the prototype on a railway track under regular operation. The track was instrumented with additional on-site equipment to serve as reference for the prototype’s as sessment. The data obtained from the preliminary tests suggest that the proposed approach is adequate in this context. This work was carried out under the I&D project COURSE, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) thr ough the “Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização” (POCI), under the Portugal 2020 and Lisboa 2020 programs [LISBOA-01-0247-FEDER-017937]. Postdoctoral fellowship of the fourth author [SFRH/BPD/107737/2015] was supported by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia”, through POCH co fi nanced by the ESF and national funds of MCTES, Portugal. The authors would also like to thank the company “ Infraestruturas de Portugal ” by allowing the instrumentation of the railway and make the respective system calibration tests. European Standard EN 13848-1:2019. Railway applications - Track - Track geometry quality - Part 1: Characterisation of track geometry. 93100 - Construction of railways. Brussels: CEN/TC 256 - Railway applications, Comité Européen de Normalisation. Paixão, A., Fortunato, E., Calçada, R., 2015. The effect of differential settlements on the dynamic response of the train-track system: a numerical study. Engineering Structures 88, 216-224. Le Pen, L., Milne, D., Thompson, D., Powrie, W., 2016. Evaluating railway track support stiffness from trackside measurements in the absence of wheel load data. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 53, 1156-1166. Quibel, A., Hosseingholian, M., Guillevic, G., 2010. The role of stiffness in railway infrastructures and its measurement. IV Jornadas Internacionales: "Ingeniería para Alta Velocidad". Córdoba: Fundación Caminos de Hierro. INNOTRACK, 2008. Methods of track stiffness measurements. Thematic Priority 6: Sustainable Development, Global Change and Ecosystems Project no. TIP5-CT-2006-031415O, co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006). Paixão, A., Varandas, JN., Fortunato, E., Calçada, R., 2018. Numerical simulations to improve the use of under sleeper pads at transition zones to railway bridges. Engineering Structures 164, 169-182. Acknowledgements References