Response of railway sub-track system subjected to railway trains loading by finite element technique

Railway tracks are an essential mode of transportation for any nation, and one of the greatest challenges that engineers are presently working on is how to make them more effective and efficient. One method to achieve this goal is to upgrade the railway system's infrastructure. The analysis of such railway tracks, however, is too complicated for the designers. The parameters currently used for designing of ballasted track railway track are based on superstructure elements, traffic, and subgrade bearing capacity. Because of the current traffic scenario, improving the tracks necessitates the development of new design methodologies as well as parametric analyses to examine their influence on the track system. The primary goal of this study was to create a three-dimensional structural framework that could realistically evaluate the stress and deformation behavior of a typical Indian railway track system caused by various train load combinations. To simulate the static behavior of a typical Indian railway ballasted track (3D) model, fully integrated solid elements created with the finite element package ANSYS were used in the current study. Solid elements represent each component track. The model has been generated, and the results of displacement and stresses were estimated, considering the account of the influence of a variety of Indian Railways loads. The computed resultants were compared with selected case studies, which supported the current numerical model's reliability. This finite element framework was used to predict displacement and stress along the track components. The outcomes of the model were against those of other computational models to verify it. The current work states the outcomes of finite element modeling performed to investigate the stress changes experienced by an element of soil beneath a ballasted railway track during train passage. The outcomes demonstrated that under load combination 1, Case A loading caused the greatest overall deformation of the railway sub-track system. Under previous research, the deflections for both loading cases A and B were within the acceptable range. In the model, load combination 1 of Case B loading resulted in the highest equivalent (Von-Mises) stress. Designers might find that the FEM technique can be utilized for evaluating railway sub-track systems under any type of railway loading as a result of these investigations.