Increasing traffic intensity and train speed in modern railway tracks require complex analysis with focus on
dynamic soil behavior. Proper modelling of the dynamic behavior of the railway track system (railway track,
trainload, embankment materials and subsoil) is essential to obtain realistic results.
This paper presents preliminary results of numerical modelling in PLAXIS 3D for simulating moving loads on a typical soil embankment, which is designed for high-speed railway trains. For this purpose, several static point loads were applied along the railway track. The amount of load is equal to the axle load of the train. For each point load, a dynamic multiplier is assigned as a time-shear force signal. A beam under unit loads on the elastic foundation was modeled for calculation of shear forces. The resulting shear forces in the beam were applied to the 3D model as factors of the dynamic multiplier. In addition, different constitutive soil models such as Linear Elastic (LE), Mohr-Coulomb (MC) and Hardening Soil small-strain (HS-small) were used to approximate the dynamic behavior of the soil embankment.
