ABSTRACT
The paper presents an integrated approach for analysis and improvement of performance of railway crossings. The approach consists of a detailed Finite Element (FE) model of a wheel rolling over a crossing (validated against the measured crossing accelerations) and experimental tools installed on the crossings in situ. The studied crossings are the cast manganese steel 1:9 crossings. This type of crossings suffers from severe plastic deformations and cracks. The presented approach has been applied to improve the performance of these crossings and to assess the effectiveness of the maintenance actions.
The obtained numerical and experimental results have helped to explain the poor performance of the crossings. Moreover, a number of the design improvements have not only been proposed, but also effectiveness of these improvements have been confirmed by the numerical simulations and/or measurement results.
The results are presented and discussed. More details are in the extended version of this paper.
