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            Longitudinal Resistance Modeling for Frozen Ballast
      

      
  Document Series
              Research Results


      
  Author
          Federal Railroad Administration


      
Report Number
              RR 22-22

  Office
              RDI-21


      Subject
                    Track


      
  Keywords
              Longitudinal resistance, rail break, rail neutral temperature, frozen ballast


      

      
      
              
                  
      
              
  Document
              Longitudinal Resistance Modeling for Frozen Ballast RR Final.pdf (604.29 KB)

      
              On behalf of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) developed a “proof-of-concept” finite element (FE) longitudinal resistance model to simulate a rail break based on historical data. Longitudinal track resistance (fo) is an important parameter for rail break repairs to re-establish the rail neutral temperature (RNT) [1]. If an incorrect fo is used, the resulting RNT could be too high, which increases the risk of additional rail breaks. Conversely, if it is too low, this increases the risk of the track buckling. This project was undertaken to better define fo on frozen ballast due to the lack of sufficient data for this condition. Researchers developed an FE model to support much-needed field testing in the future. Research was conducted between Fall 2021 and Spring 2022.
      
            
      
      
              Last updated: Friday, September 23, 2022 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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