Validation of a reduced model of railway track allowing long 3D dynamic calculation of train-track interaction

In order to face challenges of increased traffic and speed on their infrastructures, railway companies need to develop numerical tools able to predict the dynamic behaviour of the track. Currently, two approaches are widely used: the first one is a train-based methodology in which train dynamic is well reproduced but track is only represented as equivalent springs, the second one is a FEM model or FEM/BEM model of track in which the train is simply modeled as a moving load but the complexity of track taken into account. Dynavoie software studied in this work aims to offer a new approach by representing in details both track and train. Understanding train-track interaction requires transients on long track segments, leading to very large finite element models and high computation time. The specificity of Dynavoie software is to use periodic properties of the track to generate a reduced slice model, and then build the track as a combination of these slices. Computation time is then highly reduced. The present work focuses on the initial step of the model reduction where computations in the frequency and wave domains are used. The resulting 3D periodic computations are compared to 2.5D FEM/BEM results from the literature and the content of the receptance curve is discussed in relation with dispersion curves.