Discretely Supported Rails Subjected to Transient Loads

SUMMARY In this paper, the vertical displacement of a railway rail due to a travelling vertical point load of variable intensity is calculated. The model of the track is largely due to Grassie, albeit that the sleepers are modelled more realistically. The rail is modelled as an Euler beam. The most salient features of the paper are that the travelling of the variable load and the irregular discrete support of the sleepers are taken fully into account. The complex Fourier transform is used throughout this paper.