## 4 Conclusions  
The dynamic behavior of a turnout system that is assumed to have unsupported bearers in different locations has been investigated by numerical simulations. A numerical model of such a turnout is inherited from another numerical model that was developed previously to investigate the dynamic behavior of a turnout system. The model is capable of capturing impact forces as well as dynamic forces due to track irregularities and validated by field measurements. In the study, that model is adapted for three different unsupported cases at six different locations, and five different vehicle velocities. The results show that the dynamic response of the turnout system with unsupported bearers exhibit exceptional behavior as opposed to the normal railway track. The complex geometry of turnout imposes different support conditions, which results in significant loads on unsupported bearers in some cases. Furthermore, bearers subjected to high frequency high magnitude impact forces are significantly forced in two directions, which increase the likelihood of the fatigue on top and bottom surfaces of the bearers. Figure 31: Maximum bending moments of the concrete bearers when one bearer under the crossing nose is unsupported. Figure 30: Maximum bending moments of the FFU bearers when one bearer under crossing nose is unsupported. The common findings for normal tracks in the literature are also observed in this study. An expansion of unsupported bearers increases the load distribution over the adjacent bearers. Nevertheless, bearers in different cases have been influenced differently. For instance, most affected adjacent bearers from load distribution owing to unsupported bearers are shortest bearers. They could be exposed to 2 times higher loads than the reference case. By contrast, the adjacent bearers at closure panel have more effective distribution property and so, they are subjected to lower rail seat loads. Another common finding is that higher velocities amplify the response of the system. In some cases, the amplification factor could be meaningless in comparison to reference case. For instance, the positive bending moments of the bearers at closure panel shows slight difference with respect to reference case. On the other hand, the effect of different velocities is obvious for the bearers under crossing nose. In conclusion, the study provides new findings that could help the industry to consider the new approaches while designing, manufacturing and maintaining the bearers. It should be noted that there are several assumptions during simulations and post processing such as selecting a specific point on the bearer based on normal track experience. Those assumptions are to make comments on the phenomenon and facilitate the solution process; and also limitations in both numerical modeling and post processing process. As a consequence, further studies could be considered to find out the optimal position on the bearers for investigating dynamic behavior of turnouts. Conceptualization, M.H. and S.K., M.S. ; methodology, M.H. and S.K. ; software, M.H., M.S. ; validation, M.H., S.K. and M.P., M.S. ; formal analysis, M.H. ; investigation, M.H. and S.K. ; resources, S.K. ; data curation, M.H. ; writing--original draft preparation, M.H. ; writing--review and editing, S.K. and M.P., M.S. ; visualization, M.H. ; supervision, S.K. ; project administration, S.K. ; funding acquisition, S.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research was funded by European Commission, grant numbers: H2020-MSCA-RISE No. 691135 and H2020-S2R No. 730849. The APC was funded by MDPI's Invited Paper Program. Special thanks to European Commission for H2020-MSCA-RISE Project No. 691135 \"RISEN: Rail Infrastructure Systems Engineering Network\" (www.risen2 rail.eu) [32]. Partial support from H2020 Shift2 Rail Project No 730849 (S-Code) is acknowledged.