Design of Light Rail Transit at Complex Intersections PDF
Design of Light Rail Transit at Complex Intersections PDF
Design of Light Rail Transit at Complex Intersections PDF
Morrison-Knudsen Engineers, Inc., 180 Howard Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94105.
408
System Design and Vehicle Performance 409
Once the basic criteria have been established, intersection OCS design may
proceed. In developing the optimum design, three objectives should be met.
First, the contact wire must be supported horizontally (registered) so that it
remains on the pantograph collector strip at all times; consideration should be
given to factors such as pantograph width, vehicle sway, track alignment,
pole deflection, wind blow-off, and temperature variation. Second, the con-
tact wire must be supported vertically at a constant height above the track to
offer a smooth profile to the pantograph. The "stiffness" of the contact wire
(resistance to uplift due to pantograph pressure) along the track should also
be as uniform as possible to achieve "sparkless" commutation between the
pantograph and the contact wire. In addition, at turnouts any converging wire
must remain sufficiently high above the horns of the pantograph to prevent
hooking of the converging wire under the pantograph horn. Third, guying
tensions and pole loadings should be kept to a minimum. The guying network
should be kept as simple as possible, to minimize the structural support
requirements and resulting costs, as well as visual obtrusion.
With these objectives in mind, the design process itself typically consists
of the following steps:
Pole locations—Selection of locations of support poles at the sides of
the streets;
Guying network—Development of a network of guy wires to register
and support the contact wire;
Tension calculations—Calculation of guy wire tensions and attachment
heights; and
Pole loadings—Calculation of loads in support poles.
Within the framework of this design process, the OCS designer should
keep in mind a number of important principles to develop an overhead wiring
installation that performs satisfactorily and is economical, safe, and aesthet-
ically pleasing. Some of these princi1es are discussed below, along with
descriptions of the individual steps involved. For further clarity, these steps
are illustrated in Figures 1 through 3, using the example of a single track
turning movement at a typical street intersection.
intersections are similar to those at any location in city streets: offset from
pole to curb; clearance to driveways, trees, and fire hydrants; and require-
ments for joint-use with street lighting or traffic signal equipment.
Building eyebolts may also be available to support the OCS, but at
intersections their use presents a minor drawback: their position is fixed, so
once installed, there is no opportunity for vertical adjustment to improve the
contact wire profile, as there is with a clamp on a pole. -
The selected pole locations for the example intersection with the given
track alignment are shown in Figure 1.
Hardware
Before establishing the guying network, the designer must have an under-
standing of the available support hardware. Overhead hardware varies from
manufacturer to manufacturer, in addition, a given manufacturer may have
several types of hardware available depending upon the guying concepts to
be employed. Figure 4 shows several types of support and registration
assemblies. These vary not only in loading capacities but also in weight and
apparent "hardness," which is an important consideration in achieving good
commutation of the pantograph on the contact wire.
FIGURE 1 Intersection guying layout procedures, showing pole
locations, direct and sernidirect guy wires, and registration points.
23- 0 IHEIGHTS
CLAW
/
- -
POLES
WIRE
ADDITIONAL G&MING
CSTANT \ON THE INSIDE OF RVE
LENGTH
PIJLLOFFS -
/
-,
BRAIL _
CONTACT WIRE
Typically on new LRT projects, the hardware supplier is not known at the
time that the design is prepared, and "generic" or "neutral" designs are
required to permit competitive bidding. For extensions or rehabilitations of
existing LRT systems, it may be possible to call out the hardware of the
specific manufacturer that supplied the original equipment.
Generic designs may not fully utilize the capabilities of the hardware and
may necessitate adjustments after the supplier is selected. For example, the
designer may have assumed that the maximum allowable radial load in a pull-
off is 500 lb. Thus, for a contact wire tension of 3,000 lb. 10 pull-offs would
be required in a typical 90° turn. However, the actual hardware finally
supplied may be able to sustain a 700-lb radial load; with such hardware, only
7 pull-offs would be needed on the 90° turn, resulting in a much simpler
guying network.
This example highlights the importance of being familiar with the avail-
able hardware. Coordination between the designer and the various manufac-
turers before bidding is essential to ensure that the layout specified not only is
feasible to all manufacturers, but also uses the available components as
414 LIGHT RAIL TRi'srr: NEW SYSTEM SUCCESSES
/ 7 -4TK
SOLID BAR TWIN PULL-OFF ARMS
Inside Guying
A second consideration concerns the proper use of inside guy wires. Using
either the constant length or the variable length pull-off method, the guying
network on the inside of the curve (dashed lines, Figures 2 and 3) is not
needed for horizontal registration. However, inside guy wires are needed to
assist in supporting the weight of the equipment. This is particularly impor-
tant when more than one track is to be wired, or when additional hardware is
to be supported (section insulators, contactors for traffic signal control, etc.).
Furthermore, inside guy wires are needed so that most of the guying network
can be installed prior to contact wire stringing.
System Design and Vehicle Performance 415
Inside guy wires cause the inside and outside poles to pull against each
other, thereby increasing pole loading; therefore the number of wires should
be kept to a minimum. As a general rule, there should be at least one inside
guy wire at every second or third registration point.
Temperature Variations
As mentioned under Step 3, all guy wire tensions and attachment heights are
calculated based on the "reference temperature." In an intersection wiring
System Design and Vehicle Performance 417
network, guy wire tensions and resultant pole loadings at other temperatures
are very difficult to predict accurately. General purpose structural engineering
computer programs, such as ANSYS or ABAQUS, have the required Ca-
pability to model both cable and beam elements to simulate the overall
intersection, including all wires and poles under temperature and/or ice or
wind loading. However, such programs are relatively expensive to use, in
terms of both labor to prepare the data and actual processing time.
An approximate approach to calculating the maximum loading on the pole
is to assume that the bending moment on the pole varies in proportion to the
contact wire tension. If the tension of the contact wires varies from, for
example, 3,000 lb at 60°F to 4,000 lb at 25°F, the bending moment on the
pole is assumed to increase by 4,000/3,000 = 1.33. For poles located on the
outside of the curve, this assumption is usually conservative.
However, this approximation cannot necessarily be applied to poles on the
inside of the curve. Because of the general elasticity of the guying network
and of the differential stiffness between heavily loaded, strong outside poles
and lightly loaded, weaker inside poles, the bending moment on the inside
poles may actually be larger at high temperature (low contact wire tension)
than at low temperature (high contact wire tension).
The amount by which the bending moment on the inside poles increases
depends on many factors and is difficult to estimate. Calculations have shown
that, in typical intersections, the maximum bending moment at high tempera-
ture can be anywhere from 1.2 to 2 times the bending moment at the
reference temperature. One way to reduce the impact of the phenomenon is to
increase the tension on the inside guy wires and to increase the stiffness of the
inside poles. As a general rule, the strength (maximum allowable bending
moment and resistance to deflection) of the poles selected for the inside of the
curve should not be less than one-third to one-half of the strength of outside
poles.
The OCS intersection design process described above was illustrated for a
single-track turning movement. Intersections with multiple tracks, turnings,
and crossings involve the same principles, but are more complicated, of
course, because of the additional contact wires and guy wires in the network.
Moreover, the design process nearly always requires a certain amount of
iteration, as the initial layout concept may result in poorly balanced pole or
guy loading, initial pole locations may not be suitable, or various other
conflicts may develop. Because the tension and clamp height calculations are
usually time-consuming, a computerized approach is of considerable benefit
418 LIGHT RAIl. TRANsrr NEW SYSTEM SUCCESSES
The Model
Horizontal Layout
As the coordinates (x,y) of the nodes are entered by the designer, the data are
continuously displayed graphically on the screen for easy checking and
referencing. When a connection or wire is entered, the tension is specified by
the designer for contact wires and redundant guy wires; the tension is left
blank for other guy wires. The program then calculates the missing tensions,
balancing the loads vectorially at each node.
The process of entering data and balancing nodes is continued until all
nodes are satisfactorily balanced in the (x,y)-plane. An example of the
completed plan view at this point is shown in Figure 5. The contact wire is
now registered properly, and the design focuses on the second principal
objective, which is to provide a smooth vertical profile.
System Design and Vehicle Performance 419
036
Vertical Profile
The next phase of the design process consists of selecting the clamp heights
of the guy wires at their connections to the poles. The procedure is as
follows:
The designer selects provisional clamp heights for all guy wires;
The program calculates the elevation of each node and the results are
displayed on the screen;
The designer adjusts clamp heights as required, and the program
recalculates the node elevations; this process is repeated until the contact
wire profile is considered acceptable.
z 20.75
0
I-
20.5
w 17 16 19
-J 39 20 21 22 23 24 25 37
1-IORIZONTAL SCALE
0 20 40 rEEr
I I I
FIGURE 6 Example of SPIDER plot showing the plan view of an intersection guying network.
System Design and Vehicle Performance 421
At this stage of the design, a plot of the contact wire profile can be
produced, which will demonstrate the smoothness of the wire; any irreg-
ularities in the profile are highlighted and can be easily corrected by adjusting
the appropriate clamp heights or guy wire tensions. Figure 6 shows an
example of a contact wire profile plot.
In the above design process, the horizontal wiring layout and vertical
profiling can be easily adjusted or modified through a simple iterative process
to arrive at the most economical combination of guying, support poles, and
hardware.
Design Documents
The various SPIDER outputs can be used as design records; they include:
WIRE INFORMATION
ENDPOINT NODES WIRE X-Y 2 WIRE CLAMP PLAN
N1-N2 TYP1-TYP2 TYPE TENSION TENSION LENGTH HEIGHT ANGLE
1-9 END-POLST CW300 1250 0.0 103.339 25.0 336.8250
1-17 END-SPAN GUY3/8 1250 8.5 95.171 20.750 356.5856
8-37 END-SPAN GUY3/8 2500 11.3 114.604 20.750 271.8736
9-17 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 462 -34.4 35.097 24.0 90.0000
9-40 POLST-RING GUY3/8 1174 -78.1 32.204 25.0 39.5657
11-21 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 577 -25.4 103.660 26.0 136.1972
11-27 POLST-RING GUY3/8 1469 -92.1 72.064 28.0 158.0485
11-28 POLST-RING GUY3/8 804 -54.0 85.052 28.0 119.5315
13-25 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 443 -31.6 36.292 24.0 180.0000
13-29 POLST-RING GUY3/8 730 -44.7 37.186 24.0 212.4515
13-37 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 561 -24.4 62.739 24.0 127.1297
14-25 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 333 -26.1 20.262 23.0 0.0000
14-35 POLST-RING GUY3/8 286 -37.7 23.359 25.0 307.8209
14-37 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 855 -43.8 53.380 24.0 69.6199
15-21 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 333 -57.2 15.124 24.0 316.1960
15-31 POLST-RING GUY3/8 218 -19.6 39.394 25.0 231.3647
15-34 POLST-RING GUY3/8 224 -21.6 34.483 25.0 43.1881
16-17 POLST-SPAN GUY3/8 417 -24.1 45.075 24.0 270.0000
16-30 POLST-RING GUY3/8 337 -21.9 52.872 25.0 320.8685
17-39 SPAN-SPAN CW300 1250 -1.3 24.025 358.6811
18-19 SPAN-SPAN CW300 1250 -7.8 21.046 19.0006
18-26 SPAN-RING GUY3/8 487 41.4 5.018 283.2424
18-30 SPAN-RING GUY3/8 236 3.6 10.001 103.2397
18-39 SPAN-SPAN CW300 1250 -3.5 19.363 187.4810
FIGURE 7 Portion of a node table printout (top) and wire table printout (bottom)
from the SPIDER program.
-------------------------------------------------------------
WIRE CLAKP X-Y MOMENT
N1-N2 HEIGHT TENSION FT-LBS DIRECTION
------------------------------------------------------------
H - /
coaches in San Francisco and Seattle. In these two Cities alone, the program
has been used for the design of guying networks for more than 100 intersec-
lions. Similarly, it has been applied in the design of OCS in highly complex
areas such as maintenance and storage yards, where multiple tracks intersect
and numerous turning movements are required. In most of these applications,
final construction drawings were produced directly from the SPIDER output
using its CAD interface capability.
CONCLUSIONS
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