Update from Sharjah

Dear partners, as you might know from our numerous updates, the project is building rail-string transport and infrastructure complex’s Test Track No. 4 in the Emirate of Sharjah. Now, according to the latest official report, probably one of the most inconspicuous and, at the same time, one of the most important structural elements of track structure is being installed – the rail head and, accordingly, the raceway. It is the raceway that takes on all the loads from the rolling stock’s wheels and transfers those to the rest of the transport overpass structure.

The study of the rolling process in machines has not made a pause for hundreds of years all over the world: the rolling of balls (or rollers) in bearings, the rolling of wheels of train cars along the rails. You might be surprised, but this is one of the most destructive processes. High contact stresses that occur at the wheel on rail contact point can destroy the strongest materials. Cyclic loading of raceway by wheel literally bites out steel particles, eventually leading to a complete destruction of a rail head. The quality of the raceway determines the noise of rolling stock motion and track structure durability.

Right now, the company is installing a unique railhead design enabling to minimize wear and noise and to ensure a rail service life of 100 years. The combination of hardened steels with optimal load distribution from the wheels makes it possible to achieve guaranteed reliability at 100 million load cycles, and that is the indicator that guarantees a 100-year service life of all elements of transport overpasses. The use of modern compounds and filling aggregates, in turn, reduce the impact of vibration and shock loads during the passage of steel wheel electric vehicles on rail.

It should also be noted, this combination of steel, composite materials and polymer compounds throughout the string rail cross section makes the significant reduction of noise level possible.