Investigation of wheel load distributionon railway fastening system under different supports conditions

Due to a limited understanding of the complex loading conditions which affects the concrete sleeper and fastening components this led to a design process based primarily on practical experience and previous techniques, which fails to include key variables that relate to actual field loading conditions. Thus, missing one or more fastening components can occur in the field under sustained increase demands. Up to now, the performance of concrete sleeper fastening track with missing rail pad at one or more sleepers under different axle wheel loads has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, the effect of thedifferent axle wheel loads on concrete sleeper fastening systems under missing rail pad at one or more sleepers was investigated. Five concrete sleeper fastening systems parts were modelled using ANSYS. Missing rail pad at one or more sleepers conditions were simulated and compared with fastening systems with no missing components. It has been revealed that, when rail pad is missing at one or more sleeper the deformation and stress of other components where missing components are located increase more than the full fastened. It has also shown that when axle load increases, the deformation and stress increase ata low rate. The results from this study will help to improve the understanding of wheel load effect on concrete sleeper fastening system under missing rail pad and can be used in future fastening systems design and field maintenance practices.