Calibrated Superstructure Model for Ballast Condition Monitoring in Turnouts

Increasing demands for reliability and safety in rail transport require a detailed understanding of the vehicle-track interaction.However, in turnout zones, where track properties change, standard multi-body dynamic models using a co-running track formulation reach their limits.In particular, the interaction of sleepers and ballast cannot be accurately modelled.To overcome this problem, an extended superstructure model with individual sleepers and elastic rails, modelled as reduced finite element bodies, is proposed.The model order of the rails is reduced by modal reduction to accurately capture eigenfrequencies up to 1500 Hz.Furthermore, the model is calibrated with measured data from a turnout in Austria and shows good agreement with the data.In ongoing research, the model is being used to develop a condition monitoring system and a prediction model for ballast settlement in turnout areas.