the track stiffness experienced by a train will vary along the track. sometimes the stiffness variation may be very large within a short distance. one example is when an unsupported sleeper is hanging in the rail. track stiffness is then, locally at that sleeper, very low. at insulated joints the bending stiffness of the rail has a discontinuity implying a discontinuity also of the track stiffn...

A computer program called TRACK_TEST for calculating parameters (lengths of the major and minor axes) and plotting profiles in nuclear track materials resulted from light-ion irradiation and subsequent chemical etching is described. The programming steps are outlined, including calculations of alpha-particle ranges, determination of the distance along the particle trajectory penetrated by the c...

Thorough understanding of steel rail response to wheel load is a key step towards design and evaluation of the railway track structure. In current practice, maximum vertical deflection and bending moment are calculated using the theory of infinite beam on continuous elastic foundation (Winkler model), in which the foundation stiffness is assumed as constant. However, variation of track modulus ...

Materials degradation-the main limiting factor for widespread application of alloy anodes in battery systems-was assumed to be worse in sodium alloys than in lithium analogues due to the larger sodium-ion radius. Efforts to relieve this problem are reliant on the understanding of electrochemical and structural degradation. Here we track three-dimensional structural and chemical evolution of tin...

The paper presents the recent measurements of ion beams emitted from an RPI-IBIS plasma injector and some preliminary results of the theoretical modeling. The RPI-IBIS facility was equipped with coaxial electrodes made of thin molybdenum rods and a fast acting electromagnetic valve for the injection of a working gas. Plasma discharges were initiated with a variable time delay (τ ) after the gas...