Finite Element Analysis of Railway Track Wooden Sleeper

Railway sleepers have important roles within the complex railroad. Dynamic interaction among Rail, sleeper and ballast supports are vital for the construction of dynamic model track capable of predicting its responses to impact loads due to wheel flats, wheel burns, irregularities of the rail. Railway track deteriorates over time due to the dynamic loading of passing wheeled vehicle. to ensure the secure passing of trains, the track must well design and managed.The objective of this thesis is to determine the stress in wooden rail sleeper by the considering Ballast, Sub ballast, and soil with the help of well-known FEM Tool Ansys Workbench. Material models for wooden sleeper and subgrade are anisotropic elasticity and elasto plastic (Drucker Prager), respectively. To validate FEM results with analytical Zimmermann method, perform the 2D linear static analysis and 3D nonlinear static analysis. The numerical analysis results in Ansys Work bench are presented and discussed the model validation with analytical results. Even though simulation converged it does not mean this model could give results similar to reality. But in my opinion these results are not sufficient to study the behavior of wooden sleeper because limitations in soil mechanics (Soil Models in Ansys Workbench).