Methodology for the comprehensive analysis of railway transition zones

The paper presents a methodology for comprehensive analysis of railway transition zones (e.g. near bridges), including: an advanced measurement technique which uses a DIC-device to measure the dynamic displacements of rails at multiple locations along the track in transition zones; a Finite Element model of transition zones which considers stiffness variation, differential settlement, hanging sleepers, and vehicle dynamics; an iterative procedure to predict the track settlement in transition zones. An application is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology. Experimental analysis, Short-term and Long-term numerical analysis, and Design variation analysis are performed on the transition zone.