Normalized Curves of the Sleeper-Ballast Lateral Resistance and Isomorphism of Dissimilar Scenarios

In this study, the results of numerous Discrete Cut Panel Pull Tests (DCPPTs) carried out on real track sections have been analysed. The aim is to evaluate the sleeper-ballast lateral resistance curves for a research project on the numerical and experimental study of the continuous welded rail track stability under thermal loads. The main outcome is the possibility to characterize the ballast behaviour using curves which, if suitably represented, have led to discover an interesting property of the various railway track configurations. It is shown that this property is useful for the numerical simulation of the buckling and post-buckling response of the continued welded rail track under thermal stress. In the present paper, only the main experimental results, together with their particular graphical representation which allows to highlight the aforementioned property, are reported. Moreover, an analytical interpretation of the curves, which is useful to make easier their implementation in a finite element code, is proposed.