The Service Life of Ballastless Track

Before the widespread use of high-speed rail ballastless track needs to be tested in real conditions at high speed and small axial load. Experimental railway track of “VNIIZhT” makes it possible to carry out tests at high axial load, low speed but that does not fully meet the real fields of application of ballastless track. To resolve this contradiction it proposed to apply the methodology of forecasting resource of ballastless track under real operating conditions basing on the results of tests on an experimental ring using mathematical modeling. The proposed algorithm and methodology allow applying results of observation of degradation of tested ballastless track design on the Test Loop (Scherbinka railway station) to the network section where laying of any ballastless track design for mixed traffic is planned. In the longer term this methodology will give opportunity to take into account changes of operational factors on a section, including impact of increase of axle load or train speed on durability of track design.