Analysis of railway track structure

The track is the cornerstone of the railway line, covering rails, sleepers, connecting parts, ballast, as well as indispensable anti-climbing equipment and turnouts.

  The uniqueness of rails

The rails are the core of the track. They not only carry the weight of the train, but also play a vital role in guiding the direction of the train. Its unique manufacturing process and material selection enable it to withstand huge pressure and friction, ensuring the safety and stability of the train during high-speed travel.

Functions and characteristics of rails: Rails play a vital role in the track system. It directly bears the weight of the train and its load transmitted by the wheels. At the same time, it guides the direction of the train through its precise geometric shape and stable physical properties. Its unique manufacturing process and material selection enable the rails to withstand huge pressure and friction, ensuring the safety and stability of the train during high-speed travel.

Take a train consisting of 60 60-ton open cars as an example. The sum of its load and deadweight is as high as about 5,000 tons, not to mention those heavy-load trains weighing 10,000 tons or even hundreds of thousands of tons. Such weight will undoubtedly be all applied to the rails. Therefore, the rails must have excellent strength, stability and wear resistance to ensure the safety and stable operation of the train.

Rail section design: The cross-section of the rail is I-shaped, which consists of three main parts: the rail head, the rail waist and the rail bottom. This design not only has excellent force performance, but also effectively saves materials and shows the best bending resistance.

Rail classification: The strength and type of rails are usually expressed in kg/m. The heavier the weight of the rail per meter, the greater the load it can bear. For example, the weight of the rail used in the world's first railway was 18kg/m, while the heaviest rail is in the United States, weighing as much as 77kg/m.

At present, the rail standards used in my country are mainly 50kg/m, 60kg/m and 75kg/m. In order to improve the capacity of railway lines, my country's railway department is gradually phasing out lighter rails and widely laying heavy rails of 60kg/m or 75kg/m on trunk lines.Rail joints and rail joints: my country's standard rail lengths are mainly 12.5 meters and 25 meters, while 75kg/m rails are limited to 25 meters. In addition, there are shortened rails designed for curved inner strands, and their lengths vary according to the standard rail series.

On the track, the connection between rails is achieved through splints and bolts, and this connection method is called a rail joint. However, due to the significant wheel-rail dynamics at the joint, the maintenance and repair workload is relatively large, so the joint is regarded as one of the weak links in the track structure.