Analysis of Water Pressure in Ballastless Track Crack

In the areas with sufficient rainfall and poor drainage, water in ballastless track has significant effect on the crack propagation. To analyze the distribution of water pressure and influential factors on water pressure in the ballastless track under high-frequency train load, based on the law of mass conservation and momentum theorem, the analytical expression of water pressure was deduced by using the control volume method. The finite element software ANSYS and CFX were used to analyze the influence of loading frequency, load amplitude, crack length and crack opening on water pressure. The theoretical results show that the maximum water pressure appears at the crack tip under loading, and decreases along the crack. The value of water pressure is proportional to load amplitude, square of loading frequency and inversely proportional to crack opening. At the frequency of 5 Hz and loading amplitude of 10 kN, the hydrodynamic pressure distributions resulted from experiment and theoretical computation are nearly identical, and the corresponding hydrodynamic pressure peaks are 0.177 and 0.161 kPa, respectively.