Samuel Matias

• Doctor of Engineering
• PhD Researcher at Technical University of Lisbon

The increase in velocity and daily circulation of high-speed services results in an extra need for maintenance in the traditional ballasted track which exhibits a pronounced degradation, therefore motivating the investigation of alternative solutions. It is in this context that several slab track solutions arise, optimized to ensure a high structu...

An increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is expected in the coming decades mainly due to the need to achieve carbon neutrality until 2050. However, predicting electric mobility’s future is challenging due to three main factors: technological advancements, regulatory policies, and consumer behaviour. The projections presented in this study...

Europe aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. One of the most important key factors for success is shifting to electromobility leading to the mass deployment of electric vehicles (EV). Mass deployment of EVs embraces several challenges that will be addressed by EV4EU-Electric Vehicles Management for carbon neutrality in Europe proj...

Railway traffic is reaching new limits of train speed, axle load and frequency. To cope with these new demand standards, ballastless tracks emerge around the globe as high performance, long-life and low maintenance solutions. In addition, growing concerns with climate change require resiliency to extreme weather scenarios as anticipated characteris...

The growing demand for railway traffic in terms of speed and axle load causes an early degradation on the conventional ballasted track, which encourages the development of optimized slab track solutions to minimize maintenance interventions and enhance the structural performance. However, the lack of experience in its application, as well as the co...

This article reviews and summarises the major research work carried out on the performance and evolution of slab tracks from their first applications until today. An assessment of the current systems is performed, as well as an appraisal of the major challenges in terms of design criteria, track behaviour, construction and maintenance techniques. A...

Fast paced development of high-speed railway around the globe pushes forward innovative ballastless track configurations. These new track forms are subjected to growing axle loads and commercial speeds, while promising an almost maintenance free performance. Nevertheless, several slab tracks corridors existing worldwide have been experiencing maint...

This paper presents a dynamic three-dimensional finite element model developed and built in ANSYS/APDL specifically to investigate the long-term performance of slab track systems. The long-term effect in slab tracks is achieved in the model through iterative simulations, emulating several years of track lifetime and in each cycle, soil settlement i...

The increase in velocity and daily circulation of high-speed services results in an extra need for maintenance in the traditional ballasted track which exhibits a pronounced degradation, therefore motivating the investigation of alternative solutions. It is in this context that several slab track solutions arise, optimized to ensure a high structu...