Nonlinear Vibration of Axially Loaded Railway Track Systems Using Analytical Approach

Abstract

In this paper, the nonlinear vibration of railway track systems resting on elastic foundation has been studied. An axially loaded simply supported Euler–Bernoulli beam resting on a flexible foundation has been considered to provide a mathematical representation of the railway track system. Winkler springs have been used to model the elastic foundation. Nonlinear partial differential equation of the system has been presented and solved. A new approximate analytical solution called Improved Amplitude–Frequency Formulation (IAFF) is proposed to obtain nonlinear frequency of the system and an accurate analytical solution for the whole domain. The first iteration of the IAFF leads to a highly accurate solution in comparison with the exact frequency of the problem. The exact frequency of the problem is also presented, and the results of IAFF are compared and verified. Sensitive analysis of the soil stiffness and loading condition is studied for different parameters. A full comparison of the IAFF and exact solution results are illustrated. It has been proved that the IAFF can be potentially extended to highly nonlinear conservative problems.