Experimental study of temperature gradient in track slab under outdoor conditions in Chengdu area

Abstract

Temperature is one of the important loads for designing slab track. The characteristic of slab track temperature varies greatly with different regional climates. In this work, a bi-block slab track model was built under outdoor conditions in Chengdu area; the statistical characteristic of temperature gradient in track slab and the relationship between temperature gradient and surface air temperature were tested and analyzed. The results show that the track slab temperature gradient will vary periodically according to the surface air temperature, and show a clear nonlinearity along the height direction. The temperature gradient distribution is extremely uneven: the temperature gradient in the top part of the track slab is larger than that in the bottom part; the most frequently occurring temperature gradient of the track slab is around −3.5 °C/m and more than 75 % locates in the level −10 to 10 °C/m; concrete with a relatively good heat exchange condition with the surrounding air has a narrower band distribution. In addition, the frequency distribution histogram should exclude the time zone from 00:00 to 06:00 because there is almost no traffic in this period. The amplitude of track slab temperature variation is obviously lower than that of the air temperature variation, and the former is approximately linear with the latter.