Allowable compressive rail force due to track-bridge-interaction for ballastless track

On modern continuously welded railway tracks on bridges the rails are exposed to additional axial stresses due the interactions between the track and the bridge. On ballasted track the total compressive force within the rail must be limited to prevent rail buckling. In the 1980s extensive theoretical and experimental research was conducted and a limit value for the additional compressive rail stress of 72 MPa was introduced. For the more ridged ballastless track systems this limit value was raised to 92 MPa. However, this was done without any transparent scientific basis. For the case of the Itz Valley Bridge on the new highspeed line between Ebensfeld and Erfurt the calculated additional stresses due to the track-bridge-interaction could not be verified with these limit values. To determine a new case specific limit value for the additional compressive rail stresses extensive investigations were conducted and are presented within this article. The behaviour of the ballastless track system under high compressive rail forces was analysed numerically and experimentally. As a result, failure mechanisms and limit states were defined and verified for secure combinations of input parameters. This example shows the potential of the system to withstand high compressive rail forces and presents a possible method to define new limit values for the additional compressive rail stresses for ballastless track systems on bridges.