TRACK STIFFNESS AND THE VERTICAL TRACK （轨道刚度和垂直轨道）.pdf

FACTA UNIVERSITATIS o Series: Mechanical Engineering Vol. 10, N 2, 2012, pp. 157 - 162 TRACK STIFFNESS AND THE VERTICAL TRACK GEOMETRY  DETERIORATION MODELING UDC 625.083.4 Leposava Milosavljević, Zdenka Popović, Luka Lazarević Faculty of Civil Engineering, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia E-mail: leposava@grf.bg.ac.rs Abstract. Railway track stiffness is a basic parameter of track design which influences the bearing capacity, the dynamic behavior of passing vehicles, track geometry quality and the life of track components. In this paper track stiffness is treated from the point of view of the vertical track geometry deterioration modeling. In most of the models, the vertical geometry deterioration is considered to be a function of the number of loading cycles and/or a function of the magnitude of the loading. Deterioration should also be a function of the properties of the track superstructure and substructure, so, the track stiffness should be an indispensable part of those models. The aim of this study is to analyze the vertical track stiffness and its influence on geometry deterioration, and to make a comparative analysis between deterioration models that directly or indirectly include the effect of the vertical track stiffness. Key Words: Ballasted Track, Track Stiffness, Geometry Deterioration, Prediction Models, Track Maintenance 1. INTRODUCTION Under the impact of dynamic traffic lo