Analysis and prediction of the temperature field based on in-situ measured temperature for CRTS-II ballastless track

An effective and accurate prediction of the high-speed railway ballastless track structure (BTS) temperature field can be quite useful in the analysis of stress produced by temperature gradient within the track structure. In this paper, an analytical solution to the conductive heat transfer process in CRTS-II (abbreviation for China railway track system II) is developed from one-dimensional semi-infinite system, subjected to a periodic variation of track slab surface temperature. The measurement of the slab surface temperature from three pieces of track slab on 'Jing-Hu' (Beijing-Shanghai) high-speed railway was used to determine the initial condition for CRTS-II heat conduction equation. With the analytical solution and initial condition, the temperature distribution of the CRTS-II track at different time was calculated. Finally, the comparison of the calculated temperature and the measured temperature at depth z=20cm (track slab bottom)showed that the analytical solution to the temperature field is reasonable for temperature profile in the CRTS-II structure. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.