The Turnout of High-speed Railway in Foreign Countries Ⅱ

For high-speed railway, fastening system of turnout in design is laid stress on meeting both performance requirements and functional requirements in Germany and France.

In turnout area of Germany rigidity of fastening system is stipulated as followed: As V<160km/h, only rubber pad under rail; As 160km/h≤V＜220km/h, rigidity:30kn/mm; As V≥220 km/h, rigidity for ballasted and non-ballasted track: 17.5KN/mm.

For rigidity design of turnout area in Germany, stress under rail is not more than 75mPa. When axle load is 23t, rail vertical static rigidity is 17.5kn/mm. The static rigidity is given by elastic base plate (combination of rubber pad and tie plate through vulcanization technology). The fatigue test of elastic base plate indicates dynamic increase of gauge is less than 1mm. Ratio of dynamic and static rigidity is 1.2-1.3. The gap of rigidity between turnout area and the interval is overcome by setting up elastic crossing. Train shall transit it in 0.5s.

Table 2  The parameters of fastening system of turnout for high-speed railway

The principal of rigidity design of turnout fastening system in France: (1) Vertical displacement of turnout sleeper isn’t more than 0.5-0.7mm; Vertical displacement of steel rail 1mm; (2) Under impact of relative large dynamic loading, track bed must provide certain elasticity. For French high-speed railway static rigidity of interval rail is 50-80kn/mm, static rigidity of rail in turnout area 75-105kn/mm. The gap of rigidity between turnout area and the interval is overcome by setting up elastic crossing. length of elastic crossing is 5m.

For sub-rail foundation of turnout in Germany there are two types of ballasted and non-ballasted track. Sub-rail foundation of railway existing lines is used in ballasted track in turnout area. When sleeper length is more than 3.2m, sleeper resonance phenomenon obviously occurs. And then “ballast to powder” phenomenon is caused by the no-driving end of train’s beating track bed. So long sleepers are connected by means of hinge joint, which can solve the situations above.

On high-speed railway line from Cologne to Frankfurt and the similar line from Nuremberg to Munich under construction non-ballast track is built or being built, in which mines Rheda2000 long sleeper. Long sleeper is partially pre-stressed concrete sleeper, which the lower exposed part is triangular truss. At both ends there are rail shoulders and plastic dowels. During the construction rail bolt can adjust height to be fitting. Concrete sleeper turnout must be in accordance with EN13230-4 standard. In turnout area of French high-speed railway all of sleepers are concrete sleepers which must be with enough strength, rigidity and good stability. The sleeper lengths are different which gradually transit from 2.6m to 4.8m. Tensioning force of sleeper is controlled in 500kn. Long sleepers aren’t connected by means of hinge joint. At both ends there are rail shoulders and plastic dowels.

German turnout adopts multi-point traction mode with multi-machines, which its switch points separately move each by control circuit synchronously. Switch connecting rod, which is easy to install, is set into steel sleeper. S700K switch machine demands that transformed force should be not more than 6kn, locking force should be greater than 90kn and HRS hook lock can satisfy the displacement requirements of switch point and point rail. Rodamaster2000 monitoring system is equipped to synchronously monitor the position of switch point and traction electric current, electric pressure, transformation time of switch machine, rail temperature,, rail longitudinal force, heating device ,the signal system, etc.

French turnout adopts multi-point traction mode with single machine, which its switch points jointly move. The first traction point is equipped with locking device. The others are indirectly operated by switch machine through right-angle turn and conduit pipe. Equipped with MCEM91 switch machine that installed on sleepers, it demands that transformed force should be not more than 7kn, and locking force should be greater than 5.2kn. The VCC crank outer lock is equipped on switch point, which can adapt displacement of switch point in range of ±50mm. Outer lock opening is set on 0.5 mm, which automatically lock when opening is less than 1.5 mm and can't lock when greater than 3 mm. The VPM crank lock is equipped with point rail that displacement of±10mm. Equipped with the ASURVIG turnout monitoring system, the system could be used to monitor a variety of data and provide the basis for switch maintenance.

In Japan turnout is equipped with the similar system as France, but without outer locking device and monitoring system.

In Germany, France and Japan they have respectively developed the turnout for high-speed railway on the base of research and already put into practice. The French turnout for high-speed railway has made tens of thousands of times experiment, which the highest test speed is up to 501km/h and operating speed reaches 300 km/h. The German took the lead to develop the turnout for high-speed non-ballast track and put it into operation, now its operation speed reaches 300km/h.

Plentiful research and test for turnout for high-speed railway have been made all over the world, meanwhile through research, analysis on problems found on operation, turnout is being improved and perfected. Despite the turnout structures are different, but for high-speed train all can satisfy requirements of safety, stability and passenger comfort of the train.