The Influence of Under Sleeper Pads on Railway Track Dynamics

Abstract: In this work the influence of Under Sleeper Pads on the dynamic forces on a railway track is investigated. A special interest is devoted to the effect of using Under Sleeper Pads in a railway track with changing vertical stiffness. The contact force between wheel and rail and the ballast contact forces are examined. For the investigation a finite element model with the length of thirty sleepers is created and calculations are performed with the software LS-DYNA. Three different cases of varying vertical track stiffness are studied: the transition from an embankment to a bridge, a randomly varying track stiffness along the railway track and hanging sleepers.