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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Railway Engineering and Dynamics

Railway Engineering and Dynamics is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the dynamics of railway track and vehicles, including topics such as ground vibration, wheel-rail contact, high-speed trains, ballast behavior, dynamic interaction, track maintenance, vibration prediction, bridge dynamics, and rolling contact fatigue.

  • Railway Dynamics
  • Ground Vibration
  • Wheel-Rail Contact
  • High-Speed Trains
  • Ballast Behavior
  • Dynamic Interaction
  • Track Maintenance
  • Vibration Prediction
  • Bridge Dynamics
  • Rolling Contact Fatigue
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+25%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
67% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Railway Engineering and Dynamics

Which countries lead Railway Engineering and Dynamics research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.4k and 310 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.4k works
  2. 2 United States 310 works
  3. 3 India 296 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 209 works
  5. 5 Japan 193 works
  6. 6 Italy 165 works
  7. 7 Russia 151 works
  8. 8 Germany 137 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 103 works
  10. 10 Australia 100 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 67.1%United States: 6.1%India: 5.9%United Kingdom: 4.1%6 others listed: 16.8%67%largest
China3,387 · 67.1%United States310 · 6.1%India296 · 5.9%United Kingdom209 · 4.1%6 others listed849 · 16.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Railway Engineering and Dynamics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Southwest Jiaotong University publishes the most Railway Engineering and Dynamics research, followed by Beijing Jiaotong University and Central South University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 483 works
  2. 2 Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 261 works
  3. 3 Central South UniversityChina 173 works
  4. 4 Tongji UniversityChina 161 works
  5. 5 China Academy of Railway SciencesChina 109 works
  6. 6 Lanzhou Jiaotong UniversityChina 78 works
  7. 7 China Railway Group (China)China 66 works
  8. 8 East China Jiaotong UniversityChina 56 works
  9. 9 Southeast UniversityChina 52 works
  10. 10 Railway Technical Research InstituteJapan 45 works

Who are the leading researchers in Railway Engineering and Dynamics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Railway Engineering and Dynamics include Zhong Lin Wang, Xiaogang Wang and Qiang Zhang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  3. 3 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  4. 4 D. Gareth Evans United Kingdom 137k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Railway Engineering and Dynamics?

The most cited paper in Railway Engineering and Dynamics is "Rolling element bearing diagnostics using the Case Western Reserve University data: A benchmark study" (Wade A. Smith, Robert Bond Randall, 2015), with 2,708 citations. Next come "Vibration of cracked structures: A state of the art review" (1,169) and "Nonlinear transient thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded ceramic-metal plates" (1,088).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Rolling element bearing diagnostics using the Case Western Reserve University data: A benchmark study Wade A. Smith, Robert Bond Randall · Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing Open access 11 May 2015 2,708
2 Vibration of cracked structures: A state of the art review Andrew D. Dimarogonas · Engineering Fracture Mechanics Nov 1996 1,169
3 Nonlinear transient thermoelastic analysis of functionally graded ceramic-metal plates G. N. Praveen, Junuthula Narasimha Reddy · International Journal of Solids and Structures Nov 1998 1,088
4 A family of ferroelectric bismuth compounds Eleswarapu C. Subbarao · Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids Jun 1962 1,051
5 Fundamentals of vehicle–track coupled dynamics Wanming Zhai, Kaiyun Wang, Chengbiao Cai · Vehicle System Dynamics 3 Mar 2009 973
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Railway Engineering and Dynamics research done?

The largest centres of Railway Engineering and Dynamics research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Chengdu (China), Shanghai (China) and Changsha (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kokubunji and Žilina.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 766 works
  2. 2 ChengduChina 529 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 276 works
  4. 4 ChangshaChina 233 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 120 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 100 works
  7. 7 ChongqingChina 100 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 96 works
  9. 9 LanzhouChina 93 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 71 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KokubunjiJP · 45.3 works349×
  2. ŽilinaSK · 29.5 works39×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Railway Engineering and Dynamics than the world average.

See Railway Engineering and Dynamics on the map

Where is the best place to study Railway Engineering and Dynamics?

Among universities, judged by research, Southwest Jiaotong University, Central South University and Beijing Jiaotong University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 20.13%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Central South Univer…Southwest Jiaotong U…Beijing Jiaotong Uni…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 69.816.5%108.7×483 +44.8%
2Central South UniversityChina 67.321.3%15.5×173 +69.6%
3Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 64.914.9%74.2×261 +20.0%
4Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 63.724.3%5.3×27 +65.3%
5Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 62.922.9%9.8×38 +3.4%
6Northeastern UniversityChina 60.636.4%2.7×14 +49.5%
7Tongji UniversityChina 56.411.4%18.1×161 +21.2%
8Chalmers University of TechnologySweden 55.915.9%12.4×18 +16.1%
9Chongqing UniversityChina 54.723.6%4.5×28 +26.3%
10University of Technology SydneyAustralia 54.314.1%9.4×24 +132.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Railway Engineering and Dynamics, country by country

Is Railway Engineering and Dynamics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 25% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Railway Engineering and Dynamics.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Railway Engineering and Dynamics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Railway Engineering and Dynamics0.026% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Railway Engineering and Dynamics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Railway Engineering and Dynamics10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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