Influence of shortwave irregularity on increasing the vehicle running speed on bi-block ballastless track lines

Compared with slab ballastless track, bi-block ballastless track has the advantages of simpler constructed components and better economy, and has been used in high-speed railways for nearly 20,000 km in China. During the construction, the position deviation between sleepers and the disturbance of sleeper position caused by track bed concrete pouring can easily lead to shortwave irregularity with wavelength of 1 ∼ 2 m of bi-block ballastless track. Massive detection data on several high-speed railway lines showed that the standard deviation of vertical wheel-rail contact forces on bi-block ballastless track was about 58% higher than that on slab ballastless track. In this paper, a vehicle-track coupled dynamic analysis model was established, which can consider 1 ∼ 2 m shortwave irregularities of the track. Under the current construction and operation control standards, the dynamic responses of vehicles and tracks under different running speeds were studied. The results showed that vertical shortwave irregularity mainly affected the dynamic response of the wheel and rail, and rarely affected the dynamic response in other components. Compared with no shortwave irregularity, when the track had shortwave irregularity with σv = 0.8 mm, the peak value of the vertical acceleration of wheelset increased by 4.1 times, the standard deviation of wheel-rail contact force increased by 3.9 times, the vertical acceleration of frame increased by 1.7 times, and the vertical acceleration of track bed increased by 1.8 times, while the vibration acceleration of car body had almost no effect. When the track had shortwave irregularity with σh = 0.8 mm, the lateral acceleration of wheelset increased by 2.3 times. When the track had shortwave irregularity with σv = 0.8 mm and the vehicle speed increased to 450 km·h−1, the wheel load reduction rate reached 0.85, which exceeded the safety limit. Consider the results of this study, following suggestions can be obtained:(1) the shortwave irregularity with wavelength of 1 ∼ 2 m can be measured indirectly by the standard deviation of wheel-rail vertical contact force or wheelset vibration acceleration. (2) To control the wheel load reduction rate within 0.6, the standard deviation of random vertical irregularity should be controlled within 0.6 mm when running speed is 350 km/h, and within 0.4 mm when running speed is 400 km/h or above.