Comparison of the Mechanical Behavior of Railroad Ballast in a Box Test under Sinusoidal and Realistic Train Loadings Using Discrete Element Method
Abstract
A ballasted track is a popular type of railway track and its use is increasing all over the
world. A ballasted track consists of different structural elements like rails, fasteners,
sleepers, ballast layer, sub-ballast layer and subgrade. A ballast layer is considered as
the main structural element of ballasted tracks; it has a significant contribution to track
stability and alignment. After service, periodical maintenance of ballast layer is required
to maintain its functionality. Ballast maintenance is a cost and time expensive operation.
Better understanding of ballast mechanical behavior leads to better ballast design and
efficient maintenance. Discrete Element Method has been used extensively in the literature
to understand the mechanical behavior of railroad ballast in a box test. Nevertheless, in
the literature most of the studies simulate train loading as pure continuous sinusoidal
loading unlike the real train loading. This paper aims to investigate the influence of the
simulated train loading on the mechanical behavior of railroad ballast after 1000 loading
cycles. There are two simulated train-loading cases used in this study for comparison
purposes; continuous sinusoidal loading and a more realistic train loading utilizing the
Beam on Elastic Foundation theory. The results show a difference of ballast vertical
settlement up to 14% between the two simulated train-loading cases.
Collections
- Civil & Architectural Engineering [774 items ]
- Theme 2: Materials and Transportation Engineering [43 items ]