GERMANY FREIGHT INNOTRANS 2014

Mastering complexity Bold moves needed The global gathering

Quality must underpin DB’s European rail freight needs The international railway
technical development, says behavioural change to industry comes together in
Dr Heike Hanagarth achieve modest growth Berlin this month
PAGE 44 PAGE 74 PAGE 128

www.railwaygazette.com September 2014

Serving the
customer
Railway Gazette International | September 2014 105

Track Components FREIGHT

PUR pads protect heavy

freight corridors

Increasing axleloads and tonnage are placing increasing demands on track

superstructures on the busiest freight corridors. Getzner Werkstoffe has been
developing its range of PUR under-sleeper pads to give an optimised combination of
elastic and plastic properties designed especially for freight routes.

F
ollowing the introduction of Alongside broken rail clips and The iron ore flows
from Rotterdam
hardened rail steels and pre- sleeper cracks, the deterioration of the to the Ruhr Valley
stressed concrete sleepers, ballast, starting from the contact area in Germany are
ballast has arguably become with the sleeper, is one of the main among the heaviest
freight trains to use
the weak link in track design. Sleeper factors that shorten the lifespan of Europe’s mixed-
padding is a long-established practice track on these heavily-used networks. traffic network.
that can offer significant ballast pro- Problems can occur at transition zones
tection; this is essentially achieved by DR HARALD LOY from an open stretch of track to a
expanding the contact area between Head of System Development bridge structure; such areas of dis-
the sleeper bottom and the top bal- continuity in a highly-uniform track
last layer. This in turn requires under- ING ANDREAS AUGUSTIN structure can result in the exertion of
sleeper pads with highly plastic prop- Member of the Management Board a particularly intense load, leading to
erties to enable the ballast stones to be Getzner Werkstoffe the fracture and pulverisation of bal-
embedded as gently as possible. last grains, of which white spotting is White spots show
On the other hand, achieving an industries. Typically this definition ap- a clear indicator. the destruction of
ballast beneath
ideal load distribution in the track by plies to operation of 40 million gross High-quality under-sleeper pads, concrete sleepers
increasing its material flexibility calls tonnes or more over a given length of often used in conjunction with suitable (left). Broken clips
for under-sleeper pads with highly- track in a year.1 This criterion is inde- rail pads, can effectively counteract such (middle) and sleeper
cracks (right) result
elastic properties that can be sustained pendent of the form of traffic, whether effects. Under-sleeper pads are imple- from excessive
over the long term, even when subject- passenger, bulk or mixed freight. mented as a flexible spring layer located dynamic loads.
ed to decades of stress. Designing pads
that combine both long-term elastic-
ity and a high degree of plasticity is
a daunting task for today’s material
scientists.

Heavy freight challenge

The need for under-sleeper pads that
combine these properties is especially
acute on those railways which carry
large amounts of freight, whether as
part of a conventional mixed-traffic
network or as dedicated heavy-haul
lines serving mines and other bulk
106 September 2014 | Railway Gazette International

FREIGHT Track Components

underneath the sleepers, which in- with reduced ballast height; Fatigue strength
creases the contact area with the ballast • improvement of transition zones The fatigue strength of the newly de-
from between 2% and 8% to more than between different types of track veloped pad was tested on a large rig at
30%. It has already been widely dem- structure; the Getzner Werkstoffe laboratory in
onstrated that a larger contact area im- • mitigation of vibration; Bürs, Austria.3,4 A test rig allows the
proves the load transmission to the bal- • avoidance of hollow areas underneath simulation of maximum track-borne
last bed and puts less of a stress on the sleepers; loads generated by heavy freight trains,
• levelling different deflections within including curving forces. Other factors,
turnouts. such as increased train speed and overall
Not all materials are equally suit- track condition, can also be modelled.
able for these tasks. One material that The applied static axleload of 36 tonnes
has been proven to be extremely tough was increased in line with these addi-
and durable is Sylomer, which is made tional dynamics by a factor of 1·52.
from PUR, a specialised polyurethane. For such specific fatigue tests, the
In PUR production, a diverse range of under-sleeper pad is attached to the
sub- properties can be adjusted to meet the underside of a concrete slab measuring
grade. The desired requirements by mixing reactive 300 mm x 300 mm, which represents
fracture of ballast ingredients. Polyol and isocyanate are the the sleeper, using a plastic mesh. Half of
grains due to overload- main components by proportion, having this mesh is inserted into the concrete
ing is prevented and settle- a significant impact on the mechanical and the other half into the pad. The long
ment is minimised, while the for- properties and comparatively high ten- term test was carried out in two load
mation of hollows and cavities can be sile strength. In the development of un- stages at a test frequency of 5 Hz on bal-
effectively mitigated. der-sleeper pads for ballast protection, last with a height of 300 mm. The first
Fig. 1. Polyurethane To quantify the long-term effect of an optimum mixing ratio and the right stage saw 5 million load cycles, which
under-sleeper pads
protect the ballast
under-sleeper pads, extensive studies production process are critical if a bal- was increased by a further 3 million cy-
layer. have been carried out since 2001 to anced ratio of elastic and plastic proper- cles in the second phase, giving a total
measure the rate of track deterioration ties is to be achieved. As a result of many loading of 8 million cycles over a con-
where they have been installed.2 The years of research, Getzner has developed tinuous period of about 3·5 weeks. The
results demonstrate a positive influ- a novel PUR under-sleeper pad, which progression of the vibration amplitude is
ence on the superstructure under dif- aims to cushion extremely heavy loads shown in Fig 2, reaching 1·2 mm at the
ferent conditions, and the pads work in freight applications while maintain- end of the test. The padding exhibited
more efficiently as the load on the ing high technical performance. no destruction from cracks, perforations
track increases. All the padded areas
of track show a significantly reduced
Right: Fig. 2.
Recorded amplitude deterioration rate. Even in sections
(peak-to-peak with lowered ballast height, the tamp- Progress of amplitude (peak-to-peak movement)
movement) from the
ing interval has been at least doubled. 2·0
long-term fatigue
test in the ballast The use of under-sleeper pads brings
box. about a significant reduction in main- 1·6

tenance requirements, thus offering stage I ĺ load

Amplitude mm

load
loadstageI loadstage
stageIIII
life-cycle cost savings. Under-sleeper 1·2
pads are commonly used today for the
following applications: 0·8
• reduction of settlement in all bal-
lasted track structures;
0·4
• limiting propagation of rail corru- 10 100 1 000 10 000 100 000 1 000 000 10 000 000
gation in tight curves; Load cycles
• adjustment of track stiffness in areas

Simulation of high-
axleload stress in
the ballast box of
the large test rig
(left). Following the
end of the test, the
ballast grains remain
embedded in the
PUR material (right).
108 September 2014 | Railway Gazette International

FREIGHT Track Components

Fig 3. Digital analysis contact area (27·8%). The test procedure
of the surface
structure with for each material was identical, includ-
ballast indentations. ing the identical nominal material bed-
These are shown by ding modulus. The larger the effective
chalk spray (left) and
pore scan (right). contact area of the ballast, the more
The analysis showed uniform the load transmission, with a
a contact area for consequent reduction in ballast contact
the PUR padding of
between 25% and pressure.
33%. The effectiveness of using Sylomer
as a material for under-sleeper pads has
been demonstrated in numerous field
tests.7 Individual sections have been
equipped with semi-plastic PUR pads
for comparison against sections with
or punctures, and the ballast grains em- stability, and this objective was con- no padding. Track settlement behaviour
bedded themselves to a maximum depth firmed in testing undertaken by TU was recorded by means of precision lev-
of approximately 80% of the thickness München.6 elling. Fig 5 shows the average settle-
of the pad. This confirmed the satisfac- However, the main benefit afforded ment progression; trends were clearly
tory long-term behaviour of the PUR by the flexibility of the padding material visible after just 377 days. The average
material under loading typical of heavy is that the forces are transmitted to the track settlement in the unpadded zone
freight railways. ballast superstructure more homogene- was 12·5 mm, while in the padded zone
ously. Getzner has developed a proprie- the track had only settled by an average
Contact area and contact pressure tary method for quantifying the contact of 7·5 mm. So the settlement of the un-
The plasticity of the under-sleeper area quickly and very precisely (Fig 3). padded ballast superstructure was more
pad enables the uppermost layer of bal- This post-test analysis showed a contact than 65% greater, reflecting the posi-
last to embed in the padding material. area for the PUR padding of between tive results seen in other installations,
This is an important safety feature, as it 25% and 33% — Fig 4 shows the con- despite the relatively short observation
Fig. 4. Average ensures a greater degree of lateral track tact areas under a concrete sleeper with- period. Indeed, the greater homogene-
ballast contact resistance; lateral resistance is generally out padding, with EVA ethylene vinyl ity of the padded trackform can in some
pressures
underneath sleepers. higher for concrete sleepers equipped acetate padding and with PUR padding, case be discerned by the naked eye. Q
Comparison of an with pads than those without.5 From all at the same stiffness.
unpadded concrete the outset, it was a requirement of the As expected, the contact area with Below: Fig. 5. Settlement progression with
sleeper with EVA and without under-sleeper pads after 377
and PUR padded product development process that there non-padded sleepers is the smallest days of operation.
sleepers. should be no negative impact on track (generally <5%), the EVA padding ma-
Bottom: The different quality of track is
terial is in the middle (5·9%), while the evident by comparing track sections with
PUR material demonstrates the largest pads (left) and without (right).
Ballast contact pressure N/mm²
3·5

3·0 Comparison of track settlement

2·5 0

2·0 -2·3 with USP

-2
1·5 without USP
-4·4
1·0 -4
Settlement mm

0·5 -4·6 -6·7 -7·0

-6 -7·5
0
non-padded EVA PUR -8
concrete sleeper -7·0
-10

-10·8
-12
-11·8
-12·5
-14
contact area <5% 5·9% 27·8% 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
(image shows 1·4%)

Time days

References:
1. Barresi F, Kinscher W and Lorenz G. Design and Maintenance Experience
for Heavy Haul Turnouts including feedback on the use of Austenitic
Manganese Steel for Fixed and Swing-Nose Crossings. Proceedings of 10th
International Heavy Haul Association Conference, 2013.
2. Schilder R. Under Sleeper Pads — Schwellenbesohlungen. Getzner
Bahnfachtagung 2007.
3. DIN 45673-6: Mechanical vibration — Resilient elements used in railway
tracks — Part 6, Laboratory Test Procedures for Under-Sleeper Pads of
Concrete Sleepers, 2010.
4. Loy H. Determination of Long-Term Fatigue Strength of USP for Heavy
Haul Applications. Getzner Werkstoffe Report No. 2012-55, 2012.
5. Iliev D. Die horizontale Gleislagestabilität des Schotteroberbaus mit
konventionellen und elastisch besohlten Schwellen. Doctoral Thesis,
Technische Universität München, 2012.
6. Freudenstein S, Iliev D and Stahl W. Querverschiebewiderstands-
messungen an un- und besohlten Schwellen. Der Eisenbahningenieur,
July 2013.
7. Loy H and Heim M. Measurements of Track Settlement for IR — Trials of
Sleepers with Under-Sleeper Pads. Getzner Werkstoffe Report SE03, 2013.