Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F - Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit-2004-Koro-159-72

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Transit
Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
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DOI: 10.1243/0954409041319687
2004 218: 159 Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit
K Koro, K Abe, M Ishida and T Suzuki
railway track
track vibration analysis and its application to jointed Timoshenko beam finite element for vehicle
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Timoshenko beam nite element for vehicletrack
vibration analysis and its application to jointed railway
track
K Koro
1
*
, K Abe
2
, M Ishida
3
and T Suzuki
3
1
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, Japan
2
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Niigata University, Japan
3
Railway Dynamics Division, Railway Technical Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract: A Timoshenko beam nite element suitable for vehicletrack vibration analysis is proposed
and is applied to a jointed railway track. In several simulation models, the track vibration excited by a
train running on the rail is formulated as a dynamic problem where a sequence of concentrated loads
moves on the discretely supported Timoshenko beam. The external force is then dened by the
concentrated load. The Timoshenko beam subjected to concentrated loads deforms with the slope
discontinuity at the loading points. This deformation cannot be represented by the usual nite
elements, which causes the ctitious responses of the beam. The present nite element model removes
the undesirable response by completely modelling the slope discontinuity. This is achieved by the TIM7
element with the piecewise-linear hat functions. The jointed track model constructed by this nite
element is employed to predict the impulsive wheeltrack contact force excited by the wheel passage on
rail joints. The rail joints with shplates are of great concern to track deterioration, the settlement of
ballast track and the failure of track components. In the present paper the effects of train speed and gap
size of the joints on the impact force are assessed from simulation results.
Keywords: Timoshenko beam, moving loads, discontinuity in slope deection, rail joint, impact load
NOTATION
A cross-sectional area of rail
E Youngs modulus for rail steel
F
bi
reaction force transferred from rigid
foundation to the ith sleeper
F
i
railith sleeper reaction
G shear modulus for rail steel
I rail second moment of area
k
bi
stiffness of the ith sleeper support unit
k
ci
Hertzian spring stiffness corresponding to
the ith wheel
k
si
railpad stiffness at the ith sleeper
K Timoshenko shear coefcient
m
bi
ith wheel mass
m
si
ith sleeper mass
P
bi
time-invariant load transferred from the
upper component of train to the ith wheel
P
i
railith wheel contact force
u rail deection
u
bi
vertical displacement of the ith wheel
u
si
vertical displacement of the ith sleeper
uu
i
rail deection at the ith wheel contact point
a, k modication parameters for the Hertzian
contact model
Dt time increment
Z
bi
damping of the ith sleeper support unit
Z
si
railpad damping at the ith sleeper
r rail mass density
c rail rotation angle
1 INTRODUCTION
The vertical vibration of a railway track is excited by
trains running on the track. The source of vibration is
the wheelrail contact force. Large contact forces are
induced under the existence of imperfections in vehicle
and track components and affect the cause and progres-
sion of damage in the components. The quantitative
The MS was received on 21 January 2004 and was accepted after
revision for publication on 8 April 2004.
*
Corresponding author: Graduate School of Science and Technology,
Niigata University, 8050 Igarashi 2-Nocho, Niigata 950-2181, Japan.
159
F00204 # IMechE 2004 Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit
at Southwest Jiaotong University on June 30, 2014 pif.sagepub.com Downloaded from
estimation of the dynamic loads is thus essential to
prevent the track from serious deterioration.
The development of a mathematical model and the
simulation technique for vehicletrack vibration pro-
blems will be helpful to achieve improved component
design and maintenance schedules. These models are
used to understand the interactions of the track and
vehicle components: the interactions of interest are in the
201500 Hz [1] frequency range. In such mathematical
vibration models, the rail is usually represented by a
uniform beam. The RayleighTimoshenko beam model
is, in particular, available for simulating the dynamic
response in the frequency range up to 2000 Hz [2].
The nite element discretization method is widely
used for RayleighTimoshenko beam models. Nowa-
days many types of nite element for this type of beam
model have been proposed. Lunde n and A
kesson [3]
have derived an element from the homogeneous solution
of the modal equation of a corresponding beam. The
interpolation functions of this element are dependent on
the frequency, and thus both the eigenvalues and the
eigenmodes of the discretized equation are calculated
through non-linear eigenvalue analysis. Nielsen and
Igeland [4] have avoided the non-linear eigenvalue
problem by replacing the nite elements by polyno-
mial-type elements. In reference [4], they have used the
elements dened by the homogeneous solution of the
static equilibrium equation of RayleighTimoshenko
beam [5]. In contrast with the elements that satisfy the
governing equation of the beam, the nite element
proposed by Thomas and Abbas [6] approximates the
beam deection and rotation by a cubic Hermite inter-
polation. This element has been applied to vehicle
track interaction analysis by Dong et al. [7] and Luo et
al. [8]. Nickel and Secor [9] have developed the TIM7
element with a C
1
class cubic interpolation for the
deection and a C
0
class quadratic approximation for
the rotation.
In the nite element models for Rayleigh
Timoshenko beam theory, an inappropriate choice of
the nite elements causes non-physical responses of the
rail. These are excited not only by the widely known
shear locking [10] but also by the incompatibility of
beam deformation in the elements. This incompat-
ibility arises from the existence of discontinuity in the
slope deection at the acting points of concentrated
loads. In many track models, the rail is modelled as a
beam discretely supported by sleepers. Moreover, the
contact force between a wheel and a rail, exciting the
vertical vibration, is calculated using a non-linear
Hertzian contact stiffness model in, for example,
references [4] and [7]. The external force acting on
the rail is usually dened as the concentrated load.
Consequently the slope deection at the loading points
has discontinuity at these loading points. The above
elements [5, 6, 9] are locking free and can represent the
slope jump by introducing double nodes. The con-
tinuity reduction by the double nodes can represent
the slope discontinuity at the xed points such as
support points of rail, while the non-physical responses
concerning moving concentrated loads cannot be
removed even by the double nodes. For this settle-
ment, it is necessary to introduce a slope discontinuity
which follows the moving loads.
The non-physical responses induced by moving
concentrated loads have been pointed out by Nielsen
and Igeland [4]. These ctitious responses are sufciently
smaller than those excited by a wheel running on the rail
with irregularity. They have thus concluded that the
effect of the slope discontinuity is negligible. The surface
irregularities are, however, introduced only to reproduce
the impact response concerning the wheel and rail
imperfections. Of course, the rail irregularity is not
considered when investigating a fundamental dynamic
interaction of wheel and track. In this case the non-
physical response stated above may not be negligible.
This paper presents a RayleighTimoshenko nite
element that can represent the slope discontinuity
associated with moving concentrated loads. The pro-
posed element consists of the TIM7 elements developed
by Nickel and Secor and the hat functions that are
introduced corresponding to each moving load. The
TIM7 elements contribute to represent the C
1
class
deection component, while the hat functions are used
for the slope discontinuity associated with the moving
loads. The discontinuity at xed loading points is
dened by the double nodes with respect to the slope.
The introduction of the hat functions forces us to update
a part of the resulting stiffness and mass matrices at
every time step. The rail deection, slope and rotation
are hence calculated by a time-stepping routine, without
modal decomposition used in reference [4].
In this paper, the present simulation method is applied
to predict the impact responses at a rail joint caused by
the passage of a train. In most simulation models the rail
discontinuity at a rail joint is neglected, and the impact
loads excited by rail-joint passage are usually simulated
by setting a surface irregularity on a continuous rail. A
model representing the rail discontinuity at a rail joint
has been proposed by Kataoka et al. [11]. In the present
paper, a rail-joint model similar to the Kataoka et al.
model is constructed using the proposed nite element.
This model is used to study the effects of train speed and
the gap size of rail joints on the impact load. The
quantitative and qualitative investigations of these
effects are made on the basis of simulation results.
2 MODELLING OF VEHICLE AND TRACK
COMPONENTS
The present simulation model consists of the following
components: wheels, a Hertzian non-linear contact
K KORO, K ABE, M ISHIDA AND T SUZUKI 160
Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs Vol. 218 Part F: J. Rail and Rapid Transit F00204 # IMechE 2004
spring, a rail, railpads, sleepers and the support units for
sleepers. In modelling a rail joint, a joint bar and spring
units for connecting rails and the joint bar are added in
the track components. The present section describes the
numerical modelling of the vehicle andtrack components.
2.1 Finite element formulation for a rail
A rail is modelled as a single, uniform and straight
RayleighTimoshenko beam. The single beam is dis-
cretely supported by sleepers. The reaction force acting
at the sleeper support is consequently modelled as a
concentrated load. The wheelrail contact force, repre-
sented by the non-linear Hertzian contact model, is
dened as a moving concentrated load, as will be shown
in section 2.2.
Under the present loading condition, the variational
form of vertical motion of the rail is described as
_
L
0
EIc
0
dc
0
dx
_
L
0
GAKc u
0
dc du
0
dx
_
L
0
rA uu du I
ccdc dx
n
i1
dux
i
ctP
i
t
N
j1
dua
j
F
j
t 1
where x is the longitudinal coordinate and t is the time.
The prime and double dot denote spatial differentia-
tion and temporal differentiation respectively. a
j
( j 1, 2, . . . , N, where N is the number of sleepers) is
the x coordinate at the support point by the jth sleeper.
A sequence of wheels, representing trains, runs on the
rail of length L with a certain constant velocity c. The ith
wheel starts from the points x x
i
(i 1, 2, . . . , n,
where n is the number of wheels). I and A are the
moment of inertia and the area of rail cross-section
respectively. E and G are Youngs modulus and the
shear modulus respectively. r is the rail density and K is
the Timoshenko shear factor. In equation (1), u and c
are the downward deection and the rotation respec-
tively, and du and dc are their variational components.
P
i
denotes the contact force associated with the ith
wheel, while F
j
represents the reaction force acting at the
jth xed support point. In the present model, the
reaction force F
j
will be dened in equation (16).
The deection u and the rotation c on an element are
approximated using the interpolation function Nx and
fx of the TIM7 element [9] and the additive hat
function wx:
ux, t&Nxut wx Du, cx, t&fxwt 2
where u and w are the nodal deection (including slope
deection) and rotation vectors. Their components are
dened by u u
1
, y
1
, u
3
, y
3
and w c
1
, c
2
, c
3
, as
illustrated in Fig. 1a. N and f are the interpolation
functions corresponding to u and w in the TIM7
element. That is, N forms a cubic Hermite interpolation,
and f is the basis function of quadratic Lagrange
interpolation. The detail of these functions will be
shown in the Appendix. The nite element discretization
using the TIM7 elements is carried out in every sleeper
span. The slope discontinuity at the sleepers is modelled
by introducing double nodes associated with the slope
deection qu=qx.
The additive hat functions w fw
i
j i 1, 2, . . . , ng
represent the slope discontinuity at the wheelrail
contact points. The function w
i
is formed by a
combination of two piecewise linear polynomials and
is arranged on the sleeper span on which the ith wheel
rests (see Fig. 1b). The shape and support of w
i
are to be
updated at every time step due to the wheel running. The
deection components corresponding to the function w
is designated by the vector Du.
Now the variational components du and dc are
dened as du Ndu wdDu, dc fdw; also, these
expressions and equation (2) are substituted into
equation (1). The following ordinary differential equa-
tion is consequently obtained by calculating the
integrations on every element and assembling the
stiffness and mass matrices:
M DM
T
t
DMt lt
_ __

UU
D uu
_
K DK
T
t
DKt jt
_ __
U
Du
_
Tt
X
P
t
_ _
fPtg
B
X
F
t
_ _
fFtg 3
where M and K are the mass and stiffness matrices
respectively associated with the interpolation functions
N and f. DM and DK are generated by calculating the
integrals including the functions N, f and w. l and j are
the submatrices concerning the additive function w.
Fig. 1 Denition of the nodal values of deection u, slope y qu=qx and rotation w (FE, nite element)
TIMOSHENKO BEAM FE FOR VEHICLETRACK VIBRATION ANALYSIS 161
The nodal displacement vector U consists of the
vectors u and w. Pt fP
i
t j i 1, . . . , ng and
Ft fF
i
t j i 1, . . . , Ng are the contact force
and the rail reaction respectively. The matrices T, X
P
,
B and X
F
are dened as
Tt fN
T
x
i
ct j i 1, . . . , ng
X
P
t fw
T
x
i
ct j i 1, . . . , ng
B fN
T
a
i
j i 1, . . . , Ng
X
F
t fw
T
a
i
j i 1, . . . , Ng
4
The time integration of equation (3) is achieved by
Abes unconditionally stable scheme [12]. This scheme is
based on the weighted residual representation in the
time domain and gives the trapezoidal rule for free
vibration. By implementation of the time integration the
algebraic equation on the rail displacement at the
sequential two time steps M and M 1 is derived
from differential equation (3) as
M
Dt
2
4
K DM
T
M

Dt
2
4
DK
T
M
DM
M

Dt
2
4
DK
M
l
M

Dt
2
4
j
M
_
_
_
_
_
U
M
Du
M
_
Dt
2
2
Tt
M
X
P
t
M
_ _
fP
M
g
Dt
2
2
B
X
F
t
M
_ _
fF
M
g
M
Dt
2
4
K DM
T
M

Dt
2
4
DK
T
M
DM
M

Dt
2
4
DK
M
l
M

Dt
2
4
j
M
_
_
_
_
6
U
M1
Du
M1
_ _
Dt
M DM
T
M
DM
M
l
M
_ _
6
_
UU
M1
D_ uu
M1
_ _
5
where Dt is the time increment, t
M
MDt and
t
M1
M 1 Dt. The subscript M labelling the
vectors in equation (5) implies that they are the nodal
values at t t
M
. The submatrices with the subscript M
are generated on the basis of the position of the wheels at
the Mth time step.
The velocity vectors
_
UU
M1
and D_ uu
M1
have to be
given at every step to satisfy the equation
M DM
T
M
DM
M
l
M
_ _
_
UU
M
D_ uu
M
_ _

M DM
T
M
DM
M
l
M
_ _
_
UU
M1
D_ uu
M1
_ _
Dt
2
K DK
T
M
DK
M
j
M
_ _
U
M
U
M1
Du
M
Du
M1
_ _
Dt
Tt
M
X
P
t
M
_ _
fP
M
g Dt
B
X
F
t
M
_ _
fF
M
g 6
Substituting equation (5) into equation (6), the velocity
components at the Mth temporal step are consequently
calculated as
_
UU
M
D_ uu
M
_ _

_
UU
M1
D_ uu
M1
_ _
2
Dt
U
M
U
M1
Du
M
Du
M1
_ _
7
2.2 Modelling of train and wheelrail contacts
A train with several wheels is represented by an
assembly of masses; the bogie models, used in reference
[13], are not adopted. The interactions of each mass are
thus neglected. This is because the wheel motion is
isolated to that of the upper parts of a train in the
frequency range greater than 10 Hz, which is of interest.
The wheels are modelled as a sequence of unsprung
masses, subject to
m
bi
uu
bi
P
bi
m
bi
g P
i
i 1, 2, . . . , n 8
where P
bi
is the time-invariant load transferred from the
upper components of the train to the ith wheel. m
bi
g is
the weight of the wheel mass m
bi
, and g is the
acceleration due to gravity. As a simple vehicle model,
an unsprung mass, which is very often dened as a
wheelset mass basically depending on a bogie structure,
is adopted. However, a wheel mass is used here as a very
brief vehicle model.
The rst step for the time integration of equation (8) is
to consider the convolution
_
t
0
fm
bi
uu
bi
t P
bi
t m
bi
g P
i
tg
6u
bi
t t dt 0 9
where u
bi
t tHt=m
bi
and Ht is the Heaviside
function. In equation (9) the gravity and the external
force are assumed to be constant between sequential two
time steps. After the application of integrations by parts
to equation (9), the vertical displacement u
M
bi
of the ith
wheel at the Mth time step is given by
u
M
bi

M
k1
Dt
2
m
bi
M k
1
2
_ _
m
bi
g P
bi
P
i
k
10
where the superscript k denotes the kth time step.
The wheelrail contact force P is modelled on the
basis of the non-linear Hertzian contact theory for
elastic bodies. The contact force P
i
between the ith
wheel and the rail is given by
P
i
k
ci
d
3=2
ci
, d
ci
u
bi
u
ci
11
where u
ci
is the rail deection at the contact point of the
ith wheel. k
ci
is the Hertzian spring stiffness. Since
equation (11) is non-linear, the contact force P
i
is
calculated by the iterative routine using the following
linearized equation of equation (11):
P
k
i

kk
ci
d
cik
k
ci
d
3=2
cik1

kk
ci
d
cik1
kk
ci
:
3
2
k
ci
d
cik1
_
d
cik1
> 0
0 d
cik1
40
_
12
In equations (12), the subscript k indicates that the
current step for solving the non-linear equation is k.
Applying Abes time-integration scheme [12] with the
weights Ht on the time interval M 1 Dt 4t
4MDt to equation (12), consequently
P
M, k
i

1
2
kk
ci
d
ciM, k

1
2
kk
ciM, k1

1
Dt
_
Dt
0
k
ci
~
dd
ciM, k1
3=2
dt
~
dd
ciM, k1
:
d
ciM, k1
d
ciM1
Dt
t d
ciM1
_ _
13
where ?
is the truncated power function of order

zero. This function indicates the non-zero values when
the argument of the function is positive.
2.3 Modelling of sleepers, railpads and support units for
sleepers
Sleepers are modelled as masses, while the railpads and
the support units for the sleepers are represented by
Voigt units with linear springs and dashpots, as shown
in Fig. 2. The equation of motion of the sleepers can be
expressed in a similar way to those of the unsprung
masses, described in the previous section. Since the force
acting on the ith sleeper is the railsleeper reaction F
i
and the supporting force F
bi
, the vertical displacement
u
si
of the ith sleeper is calculated as
u
M
si

M
k1
Dt
2
m
si
M k
1
2
_ _
F
i
F
bi
k
i 1, 2, . . . , N 14
where m
si
is the mass of the ith sleeper. Note that the
time integration in conjunction with the equation of
sleeper is dealt with using the same scheme as applied to
the unsprung mass.
The reaction force F
i
between the ith sleeper and the
rail is dened by a Voigt unit with the stiffness k
si
and
the damping coefcient Z
si
, and hence F
i
is given as
F
i
k
si
uu
i
u
si
Z
si
_
uu uu
i
_ uu
si
15
where uu
i
is the rail deection at the point connected to
the ith sleeper. The time integration of equation (15)
starts with the convolution of the equation and the
weight Ht in the interval M 1 Dt 4t 4MDt. By
Fig. 2 Mathematical model for simulating dynamic track responses (FE, nite element)
assuming that F
i
is stepwise constant and the behaviours
of u u
i
and u
si
in a time interval are stepwise linear, the
following equation is derived:
F
M
i

k
si
2

Z
si
Dt
_ _
uu
M
i
u
M
si
_ _
k
si
2

Z
si
Dt
_ _
uu
M1
i
u
M1
si
_ _
16
The reaction force F
bi
transferred from rigid foundation
to the ith sleeper can be calculated by a similar scheme
to that for F
i
as
F
M
bi

k
bi
2

Z
bi
Dt
_ _
u
M
si

k
bi
2

Z
bi
Dt
_ _
u
M1
si
17
where k
bi
and Z
bi
are the stiffness and damping
coefcient respectively of the supporting Voigt unit for
the ith sleeper.
3 SUPPRESSION OF THE NON-PHYSICAL
RESPONSE IN THE RAIL
The dynamic responses of the vehicletrack system
shown in Fig. 3 were simulated using the present model.
The beam (rail) ends in Fig. 3 are free, and the physical
properties of the vehicle and track components are
specied in Table 1. A numerical test was carried out to
verify the cause of the non-physical response of the rail
modelled as a RayleighTimoshenko beam and the
suppression of this undesirable response by the present
nite elements. In this numerical experiment, the train
running on the rail is represented by a single-wheel
model. The contact stiffness between wheels and the rail
is represented by a linear spring for simplicity.
The reduction in the ctitious response using the
present nite element is veried on the basis of the
wheelrail contact force Pt. The numerical analysis
using the time-domain integral equation method [14]
was also undertaken to obtain the rail deection without
non-physical uctuation. In this method, the rail is
modelled as an innite beam subject to a periodic
dynamic state.
Figure 4 shows the contact force calculated by the
present simulation model. In the numerical test a
support span was divided into one or three TIM7
element(s). The combination of the TIM7 elements and
a hat function, proposed in this paper, can completely
represent the slope discontinuity caused by the concen-
trated loads acting on the Timoshenko beam. The non-
physical responses concerning the slope discontinuity
are thus removed, and the contact force calculated by
the present model shows good agreement with the
results of the time-domain integral equation method.
However, these excellent results are not obtained if
the incompatibility on rail deection remains in the
approximation functions of the nite elements. This fact
can be found from the numerical results shown in Fig. 5;
the contact force depicted in Fig. 5 was obtained by the
model in which the slope discontinuity associated with
the moving load is neglected. In this case the discon-
tinuity of the slope deection at the support can be
represented, and hence the response of the contact force
at passing above sleepers is simulated accurately. On the
other hand, the contact force uctuates considerably
when the wheel exists in a location except for the
Fig. 3 Track and vehicle structures. This model is used in the numerical test to verify the reduction in the
ctitious response of a rail by the present nite element model
Table 1 Physical properties of the vehicle and track
components
Time increment Dt 1/8000 s
Number of time steps 5000
Wheelrail contact stiffness k
c
2000 MN/m
Rail density r 7880 kg/m
3
Area of a rail section A 64.05 610
4
m
2
Youngs modulus of a rail E 206 GPa
Moment of inertia on a rail I 1960 610
8
m
4
Shear modulus of a rail G 77.3 GPa
Shear factor of a rail K 0.34
Railpad stiffness k
s
110 MN/m
Damping coefcients of a railpad Z
s
100 kN s/m
support points. The numerical results including the non-
physical uctuation tend to approach to the contact
force calculated by the time-domain integral equation,
in response to the progress of the number of elements.
Indeed, it needs an extremely ne resolution to remove
the ctitious responses. The analysis with plain TIM7
elements will thus be undesirable.
Figure 6 depicts the contact force calculated by the
cubic Hermite nite element model. This element is
widely used in traintrack vibration analysis [7, 8].
Figure 6 indicates that the non-physical response is
also included in the numerical results obtained by the
conventional nite elements. The slope discontinuity at
the acting points of concentrated loads is quite
neglected. The behaviour of the contact force obtained
by the concerned model is clearly different from that by
the integral equation model. In particular the uctuation
caused by the passage of a wheel on the rail supports
Fig. 4 Wheelrail contact force calculated by the present nite element (FE) method where the nite elements
are dened as a combination of the TIM7 elements and a hat function. The dotted lines indicate the
passing time of the wheel on the support points of the rail (Integ. Eqn., integral equation)
Fig. 5 Wheelrail contact force calculated by the simulation model using the TIM7 elements (FE, nite
element). The slope discontinuity at the xed support points is considered, while a hat function is not
used, and hence the discontinuity associated with the contact force is neglected. The dotted lines
indicate the passing time of the wheel on the support points of the rail (Integ. Eqn., integral equation)
cannot be simulated. This fact spoils the main advantage
of RayleighTimoshenko beam models by which the
pinnedpinned resonance modes can be calculated. The
ctitious uctuation of rail deection should be com-
pletely removed by modelling the slope discontinuity,
like the above TIM7 model. The use of the cubic
Hermite element, however, has a disadvantage for
computational work on the TIM7 model. Although
these two elements are non-locking, the thin-beam limit
solution of the cubic Hermite element reduces to the
TIM7 solution, and the degrees of freedom will then
degenerate by one.
In the numerical tests using beam elements, both the
mass and the stiffness matrices have a band structure.
The band width o depends on the number of unknowns
dened on an beam element. Little difference between
the band widths for the TIM7 or the cubic Hermite
elements exists. The widths are less than 10, which are
sufciently smaller than the total number N of
unknowns in the nite element equations. The total
computational work in every numerical test hence has
little difference.
The numerical solutions were calculated using the LU
factorization in the present numerical tests; the compu-
tational work for the factorization is Oo
2
N. The linear
complexity of the calculation is not an obstacle to
application of the present nite elements to the vehicle
track vibration analysis. If the hat functions have to
be introduced to represent the slope discontinuities
associated with the moving concentrated loads, the
additive computational work is relatively small com-
pared with the total work for the time-stepping
calculation. This is because the updated coefcients in
the mass and stiffness matrices at every time step are
only the entries associated with the hat functions and the
factorization algorithm enables only the factorization of
the additive coefcients to be selectively carried out.
The non-physical response will also be removed by
using the mesh renement of the conventional elements.
The mesh width, determined from the running speed and
time increment, has then to be set to an extremely small
value. Such a rened mesh is unnecessary in considera-
tion of the availability of the RayleighTimoshenko
beam for rail vibration analysis. A huge scale problem,
of course, is needed for good accuracy which is
comparable with the proposed method. Therefore, in
the context of computational cost, the advantage of the
present method should be evident.
4 ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT LOADS CAUSED
BY RAIL-JOINT PASSAGE
4.1 Mathematical modelling of jointed railway track
The present model, representing the slope discontinuity
of a Timoshenko beam in conjunction with concentrated
loads, is applied to predict the impact responses exciting
when a wheel passes on a rail joint. In the traditional
jointed track, adjoining rails are connected using two
joint bars, widely called shplates by railway engineers,
at the rail ends. Using the joint bars the motion of the
rail end is conned horizontally and vertically, and
hence a smooth running surface can be sustained.
Moreover, the joint bars play an important role in
compensating the missing vertical bending stiffness due
Fig. 6 Wheelrail contact force calculated by the simulation model using the cubic Hermite elements (FE,
nite element). The slope discontinuity at the points of application of concentrated loads is totally
neglected. The dotted lines indicate the passing time of the wheel on the support points of the rail
(Integ. Eqn., integral equation)
to the rail discontinuity at the joint. The bending stiffness
of two joint bars is, however, much smaller than that of
the rail. For example the widely used rails in Japan have a
moment of inertia about three times larger than those of
the corresponding two joint bars. The resulting rail joint
is thus a weak spot in railway tracks. The large vertical
deection and impulsive dynamic force are caused by the
passage of wheels on the rail joint.
The impact responses at the rail joint can be simulated
using either the continuous-beam model [13] or the
discontinuous-beam model [11]. In the continuous-beam
model, a ctitious beam element with sufciently small
bending stiffness is inserted in the gap of adjoining rails
to avoid the numerical problems which are the origin of
the discontinuities in vertical displacement, velocity and
acceleration of rails. A trough between the ends of two
rails, which causes the wheelrail contact force to
uctuate, is represented by the ctitious surface irregu-
larity. To simulate accurately the above impact responses
without such an element and irregularities, the simula-
tion model with the joint structure in which two rails are
connected with joint bars [11] has to be employed.
In the present paper, the adjoining rails and the joint
bars are modelled as a single Timoshenko beam as shown
in Fig. 7. Although two joint bars are in general attached
to the rail, these bars are regarded as an equivalent single
Timoshenko beam. This beam is connected to several
springs, which represent the bolts for fastening rails and
joint bars. Wheelrail contact is modelled on the basis of
the Hertzian non-linear contact theory for two elastic
bodies. The contact force is thus calculated by equation
(11). In Hertzian theory, the contact force acting on the
interface between two elastic bodies is calculated on the
assumption that the deformation of the contacting
bodies in the vicinity of contact area can be approxi-
mated by that of semi-innite elastic media. This
important assumption is consistent with the actual
deformation of a wheel and a rail when the wheel runs
at the far position from rail joints. An exceptional case to
this assumption occurs in a situation in which the wheel
makes contact with the rail either in the vicinity of the
joint or at the rail edges. To cope with this situation, a
modied constitutive relation of Hertzian contact model
is introduced as follows [11]:
P kk
c
d
a
c
18
where P is the wheelrail contact force and k is the
reduction factor of the contact stiffness k
c
. In reference
[11], the parameters k and a have been determined
through three-dimensional nite element analysis on a
wheelrail contact and using Kalkers algorithm [15].
Note that the ordinary Hertz model has k 1 and
a 3=2. Moreover, d
c
is the relative displacement
between the barycentre of the wheel and the contact
point on the rail. In the present model, the tread of the
wheel is given as the lateral face of a cylinder. The surface
prole of the rail in the vicinity of the contact point is
approximated by a plane specied by the rail deection
and the slope at either the point under the barycentre of
the wheel or the rail edge. The surface irregularities, such
as positive or negative step and corrugation, can be easily
taken into account by dening the rail prole on the basis
of both the rail deformations and the irregularities. The
positions of the wheel and the rail in these situations are
illustrated in Fig. 8. Note that Figs 8a and b both indicate
the wheelrail position where the wheel makes contact
with the rail surface. Indeed, the contact point on the rail
Fig. 7 Mathematical model of a jointed railway track. The upper and lower rails are modelled as single
Timoshenko beams
may coincide with a rail edge, when the wheel passes a
rail joint. In the present model, if the geometrical
condition
a ? v > 0 19
is satised, then the contact point on a rail is chosen to
the rail edge. In this state the relative displacement d
c
is
given by
d
c
R kvk 20
where R is the wheel radius and a is the unit tangential
vector of the rail surface at the rail edge; the detailed
denition is shown in Fig. 8b. v is the vector from the rail
edge to the barycentre of the wheel.
In the present model, the wheelrail contact is
specied separately for both rails at every time step. It
is assumed that a wheel and either the upper or the lower
rail make contact at a single point respectively. The
contact of a wheel with a rail is determined on the basis
of the geometry of these two bodies in motion. The
single-point contact is thus smoothly shifted to the state
of two-point contact.
4.2 Numerical results
The present simulation model is employed to calculate
the impulsive contact force excited by a wheel passing
on a rail joint. The simulations were undertaken to
investigate the effects of train speed and gap size on the
impact force. In numerical tests the material and
structural parameters of the wheel and the track were
chosen to the values listed in Table 2. The parameters k
and a used in the modied Hertzian contact model were
given by the results shown in reference [11]. The values
of the parameters are depicted in Fig. 9. The origin of
the transverse axis of this gure is set as the rail edge,
and the negative abscissae indicate that the wheel exists
Fig. 8 Descriptions of the geometry of the wheel and the upper rail in the vicinity of the rail joint. The
surface prole of the rail is specied by the deection, the slope and the irregularity at either (a) the
point C
0
x x
w
or (b) the point E x x
end
Table 2 Material and structural parameters of the wheel and

the track in the numerical tests (JIS, Japanese
Industrial Standard)
Rails and the corresponding joint bars JIS 50 kg N
Number of tie spring between the rail and the
joint bars
4
Number of sleepers 21
Length of sleeper span 0.58 m
Mass of a sleeper 80 kg
Railpad stiffness 60 MN/m
Railpad damping 98 kN s/m
Stiffness of a sleeper support unit 60 MN/m
Damping of a sleeper support unit 42 kN s/m
Time-independent load 56 050 N
Unsprung mass 697.5 kg
Wheel radius 0.43 m
Elastic modulus of the wheel 206 GPa
Poissons ratio of the wheel 0.3
Fig. 9 The parameters k and a used in the present simulation.
The origin of the transverse axis is set to the rail edge.
The negative abscissaes indicate that a wheel exists
over the trough of a rail joint
over the trough of the rail joint. The original data in
reference [11] are provided in the range of wheel
position from 5 mm to 10 mm. Thus, no contact
force is caused when a wheel exists in the range
?, 10 mm. In order to avoid the sudden unload-
ing associated with the denition of the constitutive
relation on the wheelrail contact, the data on the
parameters k and a were added in the range from 10
to 45 mm. In the interval 10 mm, 15 mm the
parameters were given by the extrapolation using the
known information. The data in the range 15 mm,
45 mm were assumed to be piecewise constant with
the level at 15 mm. The addition of these data was
introduced for simplicity; the better setting of insuf-
cient data requires a contact analysis to be carried out.
The effects of this treatment on dynamic responses will
have to be investigated by comparison with in situ
measurements.
Figure 10 shows the wheelrail contact force when the
wheel transfers from the upper rail to the lower rail in
the vicinity of the rail joint. The present results were
obtained for train speeds of 50 and 150 km/h and rail-
joint gaps of 3, 6 and 14 mm. The impact force is excited
by the contact between the wheel and the lower rail.
The peak of the impact force is observed when the
barycentre of the wheel approaches over the lower rail.
As shown in Figs 10a(ii) and b(ii), the maximum contact
force tends to increase in progression of train speed.
This tendency is clearly found for a smaller size of rail-
joint gap. For a 3 mm gap, the maximum force for
150 km/h running speed is about 1.5 times that for
50 km/h. When the wheel passes a larger gap of 14 mm,
the peak of the impact loads is roughly independent of
train speed. The maximum force is 1415 kN, which is
200250 per cent of static loads.
The peak level of the impact force depends not only
on the train speed but also on the size of rail-joint gap.
The train passage on larger rail-joint gap excites a higher
peak impact force, which is found from the results for
both lower and higher speeds. The largest difference
between the maximum forces for 3 and 14 mm gaps is
obtained for a train speed of 50 km/h; the maximum
force of 65 kN for a 3 mm gap rises to 150 kN for a
14 mm gap owing to the increase in the gap size. The
difference decreases from about 85 kN for 50 km/h to
40 kN for the higher speed of 150 km/h.
Conclusions from the above discussion are as follows:
1. For a lower train running speed the peak level of the
impact force mainly depends on the gap size of the
rail joint.
2. The effect of the train speed on the maximum
impact force is relatively small in comparison with
that of the gap size, at least for a train speed below
150 km/h.
On the other hand, the contact force acting on the
upper rail does not include the impact response. This is
because the wheel leaves the upper rail after passing the
rail joint. When the gap size of rail joint is xed, the
wheelupper rail contact force is unloaded without
uctuation. This dynamic behaviour is independent of
the train speed, except for a 14 mm gap and a 50 km/h
train running speed. In an exceptional case, the
progression of the unloading is relatively slow in
comparison with the other situations. The slow unload-
ing hardly inuences the peak level of the impact force
acting on the lower rail, as a result.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In the present paper a Timoshenko beam nite element
model has been developed for vehicletrack vibration
analysis. The rail was modelled as a discretely supported
beam. The wheelrail contact force was calculated on
the basis of the Hertzian non-linear contact theory. All
the external force acting on the rail was consequently
given as a concentrated load. When a concentrated load
acts on a Timoshenko beam, the slope at the loading
point becomes discontinuous. The widely used nite
elements can represent the slope discontinuity at the
xed loading points by locating double nodes at these
points. On the other hand, the discontinuous slope in
conjunction with moving concentrated loads cannot be
represented without remeshing. This is why a ctitious
response on the rail deection is caused. This undesir-
able response has been removed by using a combination
of Nickels TIM7 nite element and an additive hat
function as the nite elements. The effect of this element
on the removal of the non-physical responses has been
veried by numerical tests. As a result, the use of the
present element, where the deection is approximated
using not only the nodal deection but also the nodal
value of the slope, was effective for removing the
ctitious rail response.
The present nite element for RayleighTimoshenko
beams has been adopted for simulation of the impact
loads excited by the passage of a wheel on a rail joint.
The rail joint has the structure where two adjoining rails
are fastened to two joint bars by several bolts. The
present model has presented the joint structure by
connecting two adjoining beams and an effective beam
modelling the joint bars with linear springs. The wheel
rail contact force is calculated by the Hertzian contact
model. This model is based on the semi-innite
approximation on the elastic bodies, which is no longer
consistent when a wheel makes contact with the vicinity
of rail edges. The constitutive relation of the wheel/rail
contact around a rail joint has been dened by the
modication of the Hertzian model, as has been
presented in reference [11].
The simulation with this vehicletrack model has been
undertaken to predict the impulsive contact force
excited by wheel passage on a rail joint. In particular,
the inuence of the train speed and the gap size of the
joint on the impact force have been investigated. The
simulation results show that for lower running speed the
peak level of the impact load acting on the lower rail
mainly depends on the gap size. The effect of the train
speed on the maximum impact force is relatively small in
comparison with that of the gap size, for train speeds
below 150 km/h.
Through the numerical results shown in the present
paper, the impact loads excited when the wheel passes a
rail joint are relatively large in comparison with the
dynamic loads observed for the wheel running on a
continuous rail head. The effects of the modelling of the
Fig. 10 Effects of the gap size of the adjoining rails on the increased wheelrail contact force Dt
1=16 000 s
slope discontinuity on the impact force may thus be
insignicant. If rail surface irregularities are considered
in the simulation of the impact loads, the peak level of
the impact loads may be mainly inuenced by the
longitudinal prole of the irregularities. The present
model is effective for understanding the fundamental
behaviour of a wheelrail dynamic system without rail
surface irregularities.
REFERENCES
1 Knothe, K. and Grassie, S. L. Modelling of railway track
and vehicle/track interaction at high frequencies. Veh.
System Dynamics, 1993, 22, 209262.
2 Knothe, K., Strzyzakowski, Z. and Willer, K. Rail vibra-
tions in the high frequency range. J. Sound Vibr., 1994,
169(1), 111123.
3 Lunde n, R. and A
kesson, B. Damped second-order

RayleighTimoshenko beam vibration in spacean exact
complex dynamic member stiffness matrix. Int. J. Numer.
Meth. Engng, 1983, 19, 431449.
4 Nielsen, J. C. O. and Igeland, A. Vertical dynamic
interaction between train and trackinuence of wheel
and track imperfections. J. Sound Vibr., 1995, 187(5), 825
839.
5 Sa llstro m, J. H. Fluid-conveying damped Rayleigh
Timoshenko beams in transverse vibration analyzed by
use of an exact nite element. Part II: applications. J.
Fluids Structs, 1990, 4, 573582.
6 Thomas, J. and Abbas, B. A. H. Finite element model for
dynamic analysis of Timoshenko beam. J. Sound Vibr.,
1975, 41(3), 291299.
7 Dong, R. G., Sankar, S. and Dukkipati, R. V. A nite
element model of railway track and its application to the
wheel at problem. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, Part F: J. Rail
and Rapid Transit, 1994, 208(F1), 6172.
8 Luo, Y., Yin, H. and Hua, C. The dynamic response of
railway ballast to the action of trains moving at different
speeds. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, Part F: J. Rail and Rapid
Transit, 1996, 210(F2), 95101.
9 Nickel, R. E. and Secor, G. A. Convergence of consistently
derived Timoshenko beam nite elements. Int. J. Numer.
Meth. Engng, 1972, 5, 243253.
10 Vermeulen, A. H. and Heppler, G. R. Predicting and
avoiding shear locking in beam vibration problems using
the B-spline eld approximation method. Computer Meth.
Appl. Mechanics Engng, 1998, 158, 311327.
11 Kataoka, H., Abe, N., Wakatsuki, O. and Oikawa, Y. A
dynamic stress analysis of joint rails using nite beam
element model (in Japanese). In Proceedings of the 57th
JSCE Annual Conference, 2002, pp. 283284.
12 Abe, K. Application of time integration scheme based on
integral equation to elastodynamic FE/BE coupling
analysis (in Japanese). In Proceedings of the 14th Japan
National Symposium on Boundary Element Methods, 1997,
pp. 9398.
13 Andersson, C. and Dahlberg, T. Wheel/rail impacts at a
railway turnout crossing. Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs, Part F:
J. Rail and Rapid Transit, 1998, 212, 123134.
14 Abe, K., Morioka, T. and Furuta, M. A numerical model
for track vibration analysis using Timoshenko beam (in
Japanese). J. Structural Engng JSCE A, 1998, 44, 367374.
15 Kalker, J. J. Three-dimensional Elastic Bodies in Rolling
Contact, 1990 (Kluwer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands).
APPENDIX
Interpolation functions of TIM7 element and additive hat
function
In the TIM7 element, the beam deection u and the
rotation c are approximated by
u& N
1
x N
2
x N
3
x N
4
x
u
1
y
1
u
3
y
3
_
_
_
_
c& f
1
x f
2
x f
3
x
c
1
c
2
c
3
_
_
_
_
21
where the nodal values u
i
, y
i
i 1, 3 and c
i
i
1, 2, 3 are dened as shown in Fig. 1a.
The interpolation functions N
i
x i 1, 2, 3, 4 and
f
i
x i 1, 2, 3 are dened as
N
1
x :
1
L
3
2x Lx L
2
N
2
x :
x
L
2
L x
2
N
3
x :
x
2
L
3
3L 2x
N
4
x :
x
2
L
2
x L
22
and
f
1
x :
1
L
2
2x Lx L
f
2
x :
4
L
2
xx L
f
3
x :
x
L
2
2x L
23
where 0 4x4L (L is the length of the element). The
functions N
i
x i 1, 2, 3, 4 form the cubic Hermite
interpolation, and f
i
x i 1, 2, 3 are the Lagrange
polynomials of the second order.
The additive hat function wx, which has the shape
shown in Fig. 1b, is given by
wx :
x
x
c
0 4x4x
c
L
0
x
L
0
x
c
x
c
< x 4L
0
_
24
In equations (24), the coordinate x0 4x4L
0
is
dened in the sleeper span where a corresponding
moving concentrated load exists. x
c
is the position of
the moving load and L
0
is the length of the sleeper
span.

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is the truncated power function of order

Table 2 Material and structural parameters of the wheel and

kesson, B. Damped second-order

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