Numerical Investigating the Dimensional Effects of Ladder Sleepers on Dynamic Behavior of Railway Track

Heydari, Hamidreza; Zakeri, Jabbar Ali; Aghabarati, Narjes

doi:10.22075/jme.2026.31612.2521

Numerical Investigating the Dimensional Effects of Ladder Sleepers on Dynamic Behavior of Railway Track

Articles in Press

Document Type : Civil Article

Authors

Hamidreza Heydari ¹

Jabbar Ali Zakeri ²

Narjes Aghabarati ²

¹ Narmak, Resalat

² Narmak Tehran 16846 Iran

10.22075/jme.2026.31612.2521

Abstract

In recent years, ladder tracks, which are also described as tracks with ladder sleepers, have been developed as a new generation of railway tracks. The structure of the ladder tracks especially includes a combined sleeper consisting of longitudinal and lateral beam elements, which are considered the main support of the rails. Some of the main advantages of using this type of railway track are increasing the stability of the track against longitudinal and lateral forces, reducing dynamic and vibration effects, reducing the risk of buckling, increasing safe train movement, reducing maintenance costs, etc. In this study, the influence of geometrical characteristics of the ladder sleepers (length, width and thickness) on the dynamic behavior of railway track was investigated through numerical modeling. For this purpose, a four-layer model including rails and ladder sleepers is simulated based on the finite element method. According to the results obtained from the sensitivity analyses, the ladder sleeper with a length of 6-9 m, a width of 0.6-0.7 m and a thickness of 0.25-0.3 m shows more dynamic performance generally.

Keywords

Railway ladder track

Dimensional optimization

Dynamic analysis

Ladder sleeper

Numerical modeling

Subjects