FEM applied to railroad track electrical impedance and adjacent track crosstalk modelling

In a multiple-track railroad, the conductors form mutually coupled ground return circuits. Accurate electrical circuit analysis, required for signaling, traction, and electromagnetic compatibility analysis, is difficult to achieve because of the variability in the equivalent electrical components from their material properties and environmental conditions. An application of the finite-element method (FEM) to the electromagnetic analysis of rail track is described. After validation by benchmark tests using single rail, single and three-rail track, the technique is used to predict crosstalk between adjacent tracks of a two-track electric railroad