Dynamic squeezing behavior of tamping machine in railway maintenance

Abstract

Tamping squeeze is essential for maintaining ballasted tracks. Previous studies have simulated squeezing behavior as a linear motion with a constant squeezing distance, which is unsuitable for various ballast beds in the field. This study aims to develop realistic formulas for squeezing behavior in tamping maintenance. First, a universal expression for the squeezing behavior of tamping operation was proposed through theoretical derivation. Subsequently, a custom testing method for squeezing distance with high accuracy was designed. Finally, the parameters of the universal expression were obtained from testing results using the response surface method and novel formulas for squeezing behavior were innovatively developed. This study can lead to greatly improved simulation accuracy and effective maintenance of tamping squeeze.

Keywords

Ballast bed / Tamping maintenance / Squeezing behavior / Compacting motion / Releasing motion

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant Number GZC20240099 and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant Number 2024XKRC034 and 2022JBQY009.

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