Railways modelling toolbox: Open source finite element models for rail pads and track optimisation

In Europe, with the growing population and the need of an environmentally friendly way of transportation, the traffic of train increase and therefore its impact on the society. Research on reducing those impacts are studied worldwide from decades. Our project is aligned with this vision and aim to develop a new rail pad. This pad has to reduce the noise emissions of the track and the ballast solicitations, thanks to its geometry and materials. To design this rail pad, 3D finite element models have been developed using the open source software Code_ASTER [1] and will be published as an open-source modelling toolbox.<br />The toolbox is composed of five models:<br />1. A three sleepers model in the frequency domain.<br />2. A pad level model.<br />3. A semi-analytic model.<br />4. A three sleepers model in the time domain.<br />5. A large scale finite element model of the track using dynamic substructuring.<br /><br />Those models are experimentally validated and aim to be as close as possible to the reality. They have been used successfully to develop a new rail pad. Compared to the current EVA pads used in Switzerland the new pad reduces the emission of &gt;1 dB, while being significantly softer than those EVA pads to provide better ballast protection.