Assessing the risk of critical velocity effects at railway sites using site investigation and advanced laboratory testing
Assessing the risk of critical velocity effects at railway sites using site investigation and advanced laboratory testing
As train speeds increase on existing rail networks, and new high-speed routes are constructed, the likelihood of a line experiencing the large track displacements commonly termed critical velocity effects increases. The phenomenon occurs as the train speed approaches the speed of surface (Rayleigh) waves in the underlying ground. At a certain proportion of this speed the track deflections begin to increase above those for static loading, slowly at first and then more rapidly, reaching a maximum at a “critical” velocity. Larger trackbed deflections may cause increased rates of track deterioration, maintenance needs and in the worst cases risks to safety. Therefore, it is important to be able to predict which sites are susceptible to critical velocity effects and to determine threshold speeds below which they are not influential. Where these thresholds are exceeded mitigation measures can be considered. Reliable prediction of critical velocity effects using numerical modelling and other analytical tools require selection of a representative ground model and parameters. This paper describes a programme of site measurements, sampling and advanced laboratory testing to create a ground model for a site on the UK railway network known to experience critical velocity effects.
Critical velocity, Rayleigh wave, bender element, ground model, high speed trains, organic silt, railroad, railway, resonant column
857-869
Duley, Alice
18956f32-f62d-4159-b1ec-0cb1b08b187b
Bangalore Narasimha Murthy, Madhusudhan
e139e3d3-2992-4579-b3f0-4eec3ddae98c
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Thompson, David
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
17 September 2021
Duley, Alice
18956f32-f62d-4159-b1ec-0cb1b08b187b
Bangalore Narasimha Murthy, Madhusudhan
e139e3d3-2992-4579-b3f0-4eec3ddae98c
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Thompson, David
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Duley, Alice, Bangalore Narasimha Murthy, Madhusudhan, Le Pen, Louis, Thompson, David and Powrie, William
(2021)
Assessing the risk of critical velocity effects at railway sites using site investigation and advanced laboratory testing.
Tutumluer, Erol, Nazarian, Soheil, Al-Qadi, Imad and Qamhia, Issam I.A.
(eds.)
In Advances in Transportation Geotechnics IV - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics Volume 3.
vol. 3,
Springer.
.
(doi:10.1007/978-3-030-77238-3_65).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
As train speeds increase on existing rail networks, and new high-speed routes are constructed, the likelihood of a line experiencing the large track displacements commonly termed critical velocity effects increases. The phenomenon occurs as the train speed approaches the speed of surface (Rayleigh) waves in the underlying ground. At a certain proportion of this speed the track deflections begin to increase above those for static loading, slowly at first and then more rapidly, reaching a maximum at a “critical” velocity. Larger trackbed deflections may cause increased rates of track deterioration, maintenance needs and in the worst cases risks to safety. Therefore, it is important to be able to predict which sites are susceptible to critical velocity effects and to determine threshold speeds below which they are not influential. Where these thresholds are exceeded mitigation measures can be considered. Reliable prediction of critical velocity effects using numerical modelling and other analytical tools require selection of a representative ground model and parameters. This paper describes a programme of site measurements, sampling and advanced laboratory testing to create a ground model for a site on the UK railway network known to experience critical velocity effects.
Text
4th-ICTG_401_original_v3
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 April 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 September 2021
Published date: 17 September 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The work described in this paper was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and HS2 Ltd. as part of the Track Systems for High Speed Railways: Getting It Right project (EP/K03765X). The site access was also facilitated by Network Rail and AECOM who assisted with historical records and the site investigation.
Funding Information:
The work described in this paper was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and HS2 Ltd. as part of the Track Systems for High Speed Railways: Getting It Right project (EP/K03765X). The site access was also facilitated by Network Rail and AECOM who assisted with historical records and the site investigation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Venue - Dates:
the 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics (4th ICTG), Illinois, Chicago, United States, 2021-05-23 - 2021-05-26
Keywords:
Critical velocity, Rayleigh wave, bender element, ground model, high speed trains, organic silt, railroad, railway, resonant column
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 451818
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451818
PURE UUID: 8810077f-2411-4d21-b980-9474c3b995ec
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Date deposited: 28 Oct 2021 16:35
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:53
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Contributors
Author:
Alice Duley
Editor:
Erol Tutumluer
Editor:
Soheil Nazarian
Editor:
Imad Al-Qadi
Editor:
Issam I.A. Qamhia
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