Multicriteria Optimisation of Railway Track for High-speed Lines

The paper presents results of multicriteria optimum design of an embedded rail structure (ERS). The optimality criteria are based on the requirements to railway tracks related to cost efficiency of the design, minimum noise emission and minimum wear of wheels and rails. The design variables comprise the material and geometry properties of ERS, namely elastic properties and volume of compound, shape of rails and size of troughs. The static and dynamic behaviour of ERS is analysed using the finite element software ANSYS and RAIL. The multicriteria optimisation problem is solved using preference function approach. The optimisation is performed by a numerical technique that uses Multipoint Approximations based on Response Surface fitting (MARS method). Starting from a conventional embedded rail structure, new designs of ERS suitable for high-speed operations have been obtained. Because of the multicriteria nature of the problem the solution depends on the preferences for the optimal design. The results of the optimisation are presented and discussed in the paper.