1. Purpose and Scope of the chosen civil engineering product

In this paper, we will be discussing about the parametrical modelling of a railway track. The purpose of the parametrical modelling of the railway track is to do research to find alternatives of the construction of the railway track. By omitting norms, being creative and playful with the parametric of a model, and only focusing on finding alternative construction for a certain system will we have the possibility of finding a better alternative towards the stereotypical construction of the system.

The scope of the chosen civil engineering product will be about the stress that is applied towards the rail depending on the different distance between the sleeper. By playing around with the parameters, we will be able to calculate the stress that is applied on the rail. And with the known strength of the rail, we can find out which design or alternative is actually superior towards the others. And at the same time the pressure that is exerted on the sleeper will then be able to be calculated as well. By changing this two high performance parameter of each component in this model, we will be able to find the best design for this specific purpose.

2. Model experimentation and alternatives of design

In this assignment, a couple of configuration of the parameters are done in order to create a couple of models of the structure. The goal of the configuration of the parameters is to analyse and compare the different models. Through comparison of these models, the best model will be chosen and explained.

The first alternative model of the structure will be the standard railway track used in Germany. This model is chosen for the sake of benchmarking. Since this is the standard model of the railway track, we can compare this model with the other models to find out the pros and cons of the other models.

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Modelling Civil Engineered System

It is clear to see that the amount of force exerted on each of the sleeper with this design is around 2.200 kN with Mmax of 337,24 kNm.

By calculating the amount of force and torque exerted through this design, we can design another model with the goal of minimizing the amount of force and torque applied onto the sleeper and rail. By minimizing the force and torque, a more economical material or steel classification can be used instead of the current one.

The second design will have its width of the track gauge modified.

After minimizing the railway track gauge from 600 mm to 500 mm, the force and torque exerted on the components drop to 1873,60 kN and 234,2 kNm respectively. This might look like a more feasible model to be used instead of the standardized model. But one must not forget that the railway is one of the component of the train transportation. In such case, it is important to also investigate what effect it has on the design of the train. By minimizing the width of the track gauge, the width of the train will then have to be minimized as well to be able to travel on this track. By minimizing the width of the train, the train will lose carry capacity per train, which could be economical or on the other hand expensive to operate. To be able to decide whether it is a feasible design will need a further investigation into the relationship of the smaller train width and usage of cheaper materials for the railway track.

But our investigation shows that this design is better in comparison to the standard model in terms of force and torque distribution towards the sleeper and rail.

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Modelling Civil Engineered System

The length in this model is shortened from 600 to 450. While maintaining the T/L ratio at 0,11. Which in turns enlarges the width of the head from the rail. The idea of increasing the width of the head from the rail is to provide the train a larger surface to travel on. By having the width of the head increased, an assumption that the comfort and the stability of the train travelling at a fast speed will increase as well. But by increasing the width of the rail head, the force and torque that is exerted on the components increased to 2997,76 kN and 449,6 kNm respectively. And increase of around 30% for both components means that a higher steel grade will be needed to accommodate the system. The trade off of using a more expensive material for the sake of only extra comfort might not be the best idea in this case. Given that a really high speed velocity could also be achieved without increasing the width of the rail head.

So far only the second model could have the possibility of being a feasible model to be applied. Through this assignment we were able to learn the benefits of tweaking the parameters in model to better understand what effect each parameter has towards the main usage of our system. By better understanding the correlation between the parameter and performance of the system, we could design an alternative model that suits to a specific needs that might be important in the future.