Revision as of 21:00, 25 December 2017 edit Jasper Deng (talk \| contribs) Edit filter managers, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers 54,492 edits →Geometry: this is not an inherent advantage of the curve, this would be true of any curve defined using well-known special functions. Plus, one usually must process raw values of the Fresnel integrals to get real-life coordinates. ← Previous edit		Revision as of 21:21, 25 December 2017 edit undo North8000 (talk \| contribs) Extended confirmed users, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers 89,368 edits →Geometry: Remove parenthetical phrase. Unsourced, probably wrong/unsourcable, and per talk. Next edit →
Line 61: The degree of banking in railroad track is typically expressed as the difference in elevation of the two rails, commonly quantified and referred to as the [[superelevation]]. Such difference in the elevation of the rails is intended to compensate for the [[centripetal acceleration]] needed for an object to move along a curved path, so that the lateral acceleration experienced by passengers/the cargo load will be minimized, which enhances passenger comfort/reduces the chance of load shifting (movement of cargo during transit, causing accidents and damage). It is important to note that superelevation is not the same as the roll angle of the rail ~~(also referred to as ''cant'' or ''camber''),~~ which is used to describe the "tilting" of the individual rails instead of the banking of the entire track structure as reflected by the elevation difference at the "top of rail". Regardless of the horizontal alignment and the superelevation of the track, the individual rails are almost always designed to "roll"/"cant" towards gage side (the side where the wheel is in contact with the rail) to compensate for the horizontal forces exerted by wheels under normal rail traffic. The change of superelevation from zero in a tangent segment to the value selected for the body of a following curve occurs over the length of a transition curve that connects the tangent and the curve proper. Over the length of the transition the curvature of the track will also vary from zero at the end abutting the tangent segment to the value of curvature of the curve body, which is numerically equal to one over the radius of the curve body.

Track transition curve: Difference between revisions