A new time-delayed periodic boundary condition for discrete element modelling of railway track under moving wheel loads

Li, Huiqi; McDowell, Glenn; De Bono, John

Abstract

A new time-delayed periodic boundary condition (PBC) has been proposed for discrete element modelling (DEM) of periodic structures subject to moving loads such as railway track based on a box test which is normally used as an element testing model. The new proposed time-delayed PBC is approached by predicting forces acting on ghost particles with the consideration of different loading phases for adjacent sleepers whereas a normal PBC simply gives the ghost particles the same contact forces as the original particles. By comparing the sleeper in a single sleeper test with a fixed boundary, a normal periodic boundary and the newly proposed time-delayed PBC (TDPBC), the new TDPBC was found to produce the closest settlement to that of the middle sleeper in a three-sleeper test which was assumed to be free of boundary effects. It appears that the new TDPBC can eliminate the boundary effect more effectively than either a fixed boundary or a normal periodic cell.

Citation

Li, H., McDowell, G., & De Bono, J. (2021). A new time-delayed periodic boundary condition for discrete element modelling of railway track under moving wheel loads. Granular Matter, 23(4), Article 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-021-01123-4

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 24, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Aug 9, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 9, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 23, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 10, 2022
• Journal: Granular Matter
• Print ISSN: 1434-5021
• Electronic ISSN: 1434-7636
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 75
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-021-01123-4
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5719999
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10035-021-01123-4