Investigation on dynamic behavior of railway track in transition zone

Railway track transition zone is a zone where track stiffness changes abruptly. This change occurs where the slab track connects to a conventional ballasted track, at the abutments of open-deck bridges, at the beginnings and ends of tunnels, at road and railway level crossings, and at locations where rigid culverts are placed close to the bottom of sleepers. In this paper, ballasted and slab tracks are simulated by two-dimensional model with two-layer masses. The transition zone is divided into three segments, each having a length of 6 meters with different specification and stiffness. The model of track consists of a Timoshenko beam as a rail and slab, lumped mass as sleepers, and spring and damper as ballast, sub-grade, and rail pad. The results of the dynamic analysis are presented and compared in two circumstances one considering the transition zone and the other its absence.