Thermal Buckling of Railways

This manuscript presents the results of numerical research regarding the thermal buckling on railway tracks. High temperatures may cause thermal buckling on the railways and due to this fact speed restrictions are often issued to reduce the probability of derailments. Railways are subject to thermal and mechanical loads in which, given some circumstances, buckling may take place. Continuous welded rail (CWR) is more prone to this effect than jointed rails since the longitudinal displacement is restrained. This research is focused on the effect of the track gauge, rail profile, initial imperfection amplitude, sleeper's elasticity modulus, torsional resistance of fastenings, and ballast resistance on the thermal buckling of railways. A total of 144 simulations were developed, concluding that the imperfection level and ballast resistance are the most affecting parameters on the buckling temperature.