Rail Roughness Evolution on a Curved Track and Its Impact on Induced Structure Borne Vibration

摘要

To assess the impact of rail grinding on structure borne vibration a study was undertaken on the track between the West Brompton (WB) and Earls Court (EC) stations. Before and after rail-grinding took place, rail roughness was measured at three different occasions and, in parallel to that, vibration due to train movements was measured at three locations inside the former Earls Court 1 exhibition centre (EC1) basement. This measurement process was undertaken on four separate occasions to assess the evolution of rail roughness/train vibration. Trains in the WB tunnel have generally been found to travel at lower speed than the track design speed, which suggests a higher wear rate of the outer rail (OR) when compared to the inside rail (IR). Contrary to the common approach of averaging the roughness of both rails, a better correlation between vibration levels and rail roughness for this curved track was found when considering the maximum roughness levels of both rails.