Optimum railway transition curves—method of the assessment and results

Abstract

This article discusses the optimization of railway transition curves, through the application of polynomials of 9th and 11th degrees. In this work, the authors use a 2‐axle rail vehicle model combined with mathematically understood optimization methods. This model is used to simulate rail vehicle movement negotiating both a transition curve and circular arc. Passenger comfort is applied as the criterion to assess which transition is actually is the best one. The 4‐axle vehicle was also used to verify the results obtained using the 2‐axle vehicle. Our results show that the traditionally used in a railway engineering transition—3rd degree parabola—which is not always the optimum curve. This fact is especially valid for the longest curves, with lengths greater than 150 m. For such cases, the transition curves similar to standard curves of 9th and 11th degrees is the optimum ones. This result is confirmed by the use of the 4‐axle vehicle.