Evaluation of Additional Rail Stress for Partial Application of Sliding Slab Track

CWR(continuous welded rail) on railway bridges should be carefully examined and installed due to additional rail stress caused by track-structure interaction. The additional rail stresses are caused by longitudinal displacement of bridge due to temperature change and train vertical load and traction/braking force. Design codes limit the additional rail stress less than or equal to 92 MPa. Previous researches showed that the additional rail stress generated through track-bridge interaction can be reduced significantly up to 80% by applying sliding slab track system. This study evaluates the effectiveness of partial application of the sliding slab track system, in which the sliding slab track is applied only at bridge roller support region rather than applying it to the entire bridge span. The proposed system has been verified here through track-bridge interaction analysis for 60 m or 70 m long simple span bridges and suggested proper application length of the partial sliding slab track.