Estimation of stress state of rails under traffic speeds over 160 Km/H.

The study presents the results of a multivariate calculation of the stresses in rails from locomotive on straight track sections. As far as Ukrainian Railways plan to introduce high-speed traffic on some main lines, authors selected locomotives of foreign manufacture with design speeds from 200 to 260 km/h for their study. The calculation was made in Mathcad and based on the Ukrainian Standards now in place at track facilities. It is found that the maximum stresses in the lateral side of rail head and rail base occur during summer, therefore this parameter can be considered as the most important in terms of speed limitation for the calculation conditions. The results obtained can also demonstrate that at traffic speeds exceeding 160 km/h the rails R65 on straight sections should be thermally treated, as at speeds over 140 km/h the value of stresses in the lateral side of rail base exceed the allowable level for rails without thermal treatment. For such rails the values of stresses do not exceed the allowable values for all types of locomotives moving at the design speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]