Prestressed concrete sleeper is a safety-critical track component widely used in ballasted railway tracks. The performance, endurance and quality of prestressed sleepers can detrimentally affect the serviceability durability track. An optimal production method an important criterion underpinning over entire service life sleepers. At present, research work mainly focuses on dynamic load, bearing...

When rails are laid in a railway track, small gaps are left between the ends of adjoining rails to allow for the expansion of the rails when the temperature rises. Rail joints are provided to form a continuous rail path which are normally laid in standard lengths bolted together by fishplates. When two rail joints are exactly opposing each other, they are called square (side by side) joints...

the track stiffness experienced by a train will vary along the track. sometimes the stiffness variation may be very large within a short distance. one example is when an unsupported sleeper is hanging in the rail. track stiffness is then, locally at that sleeper, very low. at insulated joints the bending stiffness of the rail has a discontinuity implying a discontinuity also of the track stiffn...

One of the goals of the UK research project SafeCap (Overcoming the railway capacity challenges without undermining railway network safety) is to provide railway engineers with a formal modelling framework for analysing safety and capacity of railway systems. To this end, we have proposed a “natural modelling” approach for specifying railway networks in CSP||B [4], and we are developing the cap...

This article gives an overview of the results of the author’s PhD thesis Schlechte [2012]. The thesis deals with the mathematical optimization for the efficient use of railway infrastructure. We address the optimal allocation of the available railway track capacity the track allocation problem. This track allocation problem is a major challenge for a railway company, independent of whether a fr...

every year, a considerable portion of the national budget specifies to reconstruct the properties which have been destroyed during natural disasters in iran. recognition of vulnerable sites to natural disasters can reduce the probable damages. the most important point in designing railway tracks is to join stations in the least possible time. so, the railway track is meant to cross lots of vall...