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Think Outside The Box: New Materials, Design Application, And Performance Of Railway Turnout Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen May 2014

Think Outside The Box: New Materials, Design Application, And Performance Of Railway Turnout Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Railway turnout systems are a main feature in railway tracks. There are two types of turnout support structures, which can be designed to be either a slab or a cluster of discrete bearers. The choice of turnout support system depends on asset management strategy of the rail operators or maintainers. This paper will focus on the discrete turnout bearer system where turnout alignments, settlement and deformation are comparatively more flexible and retrievable by routine ballast tamping. It embraces the consideration of new materials for use as a turnout bearer. Traditional bearer materials are timber, steel, and concrete. Recent developments have …


In Situ Performance Of A Complex Urban Turnout Grillage System Using Fibre-Reinforced Foamed Urethane (Ffu) Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen Nov 2013

In Situ Performance Of A Complex Urban Turnout Grillage System Using Fibre-Reinforced Foamed Urethane (Ffu) Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

A full-scale trial to investigate in-situ behaviours of a turnout grillage system using an alternative material, ‘fibre-reinforced foamed urethane (FFU)’ bearers, has been carried out at a complex turnout junction under heavy mixed traffics at Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia. The turnout junction was renewed using the FFU bearers altogether with new special track components. Influences of the FFU bearers on track geometry (recorded by track inspection vehicle ‘AK Car’ and based on survey data), track settlement, track dynamics and acoustic characteristics have been measured. Operational train pass-by measurements have been analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of the replacement methodology. …


Acoustic And Dynamic Characteristics Of A Complex Urban Turnout Using Fibre-Reinforced Foamed Urethane (Ffu) Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen Sep 2013

Acoustic And Dynamic Characteristics Of A Complex Urban Turnout Using Fibre-Reinforced Foamed Urethane (Ffu) Bearers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

A special track system used to divert a train to other directions or other tracks is generally called ‘railway turnout’. A traditional turnout system includes rails, switches, crossings (special track components), steel plates, fasteners, screw spikes, timber bearers, ballast and formation. The wheel rail contact over the crossing transfer zone has a dip-like shape and can often cause detrimental impact loads on the railway track and its components. The large impact also emits disturbing noises (either impact or ground-borne noise) to railway neighbors. In a brown-field railway track where an existing aged infrastructure requires renewal or maintenance, some physical constraints …