Mechanical and vibrational testing of clamped rail steel assembly

Abstract

The mechanical clamps used for temporarily clamping broken rails before replacement or thermit welding must be reliable as any loosening may lead to rail misalignment and the consequences will be dire. In this paper, a setup with 2 broken rails and 4 clamps were replicated in the laboratory to perform vibration testing on. Experiments were conducted, changing parameters of the setup systematically to find out the cause and effects of each parameter. Based on the vibration results, a new method of tightening and installation which reduced the preload decrease significantly. The causes and mechanisms of loosening were studied and discussed.