• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.552-557
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• 2015

Ballast gravel in a railroad field is often polluted by grease and heavy metals. In this paper, the performances of a dry cleaning method for polluted ballast gravel in which pollutants on the gravel surface can be physically removed was extensively studied. A polluted ballast cleaning device able to shoot emery blasting media onto the surface using compressed air was prepared. Polluted ballast gravel was put into this device for cleaning, with the treatment time varied from 1 to 10 min. The cleaning efficiency of the total petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals were studied. The total petroleum hydrocarbon removal efficiency was 70-80% for gravels sampled from a locomotive waiting line, while it was 40-60% for gravels sampled from a turnout area. The heavy metal removal efficiency exceeded 90% for copper and lead, while it was 65-80% for nickel and zinc. This system was found to be effective for the remediation of polluted ballast gravels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.384-389
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• 2008

The ballast, one of track components, plays an essential role as intermedium in transmitting train load to subgrade safely, and the deterioration of ballast directly effects the growth of track irregularity. In this study, we determined the main factor of ballast deterioration was miniature of ballast gravel caused MTT (Multiple Tie Tamper) works and accumulated traffic loads. To estimate the deterioration characteristics of ballast, we carried out field test (Chap.2) through track construction for test and the model test (Chap.3) simulating the actual operation environment, have done a comparative analysis with the sample's result (crushing rate) of high-speed railroad running actually.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.84-90
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• 2009

The gravel ballast in the ballasted track has the function to not only transfer/scatter the train loads to subgrade through rail and sleeper but also elastically support the train loads. Because track irregularities results inevitably from the repetitive train loads, the track maintenance should be undertaken for correcting them. By analyzing the track maintenance history in the Gyeongbu high speed railway, this study tries to choose the local two spots in the railway in which the repair frequencies are maximum and relative small; to analyze their dynamic characteristics as well as grade; and to compare them with maintenance history. As the dynamic characteristics of track, the vertical displacement and vibrating acceleration of sleeper as well as acceleration of ballast are measured/analyzed. Furthermore, by collecting soil and gravel on the reinforced roadbed and undertaking ballast screening test, the size distributions are compared with grade distribution standards of high speed railway.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.82-88
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• 2016

Ballasted gravel will be damaged or worn by the repetitive train load. And these damages of ballast gravel could be increased by increasing vehicle speed. Therefore, various techniques for reducing the ballast pressure have been proposed, such as the attached pad type of sleeper bottom for ballasted track. In this study, spring stiffness test method were proposed to evaluate the performance of under sleeper pad for ballasted track. Standard ballast plate(SBP) was developed to simulate the ballast gravel and compared with the foreign test results. Experimental results showed a trend similar to the previous studies according to various loading plate type. specimen type(Type A, Type B) differences in spring stiffness according to hardness were not significant. Also, the FSP (Flat steel plate) - shaped jig is about 80% of the spring stiffness was greater than SBP. Therefore, to evaluate the actual spring stiffness of under sleeper pad for ballasted track, it was important to adopted the appropriate spring stiffness test method using the SBP to simulate actual field conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.208-212
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• 2010

The high-speed railway consists of tracks, gravel ballast and subgrade, and the dynamic load is passed to subgrade through track and gravel ballast. The relaxation condition of the gravel ballast is able to be evaluate relatively and to be repaired through a continuous management, but it is difficult to evaluate the condition of subgrade, which is final part of supporting dynamic load and to repair it when made a problem. The gravel ballast and subgrade are evaluated by determining shear wave velocity. To evaluate ballast and subgrade, a good method to determine shear wave velocity is a non-destructive experiment such as surface wave tests providing a prompt experiment because an experiment in railway has a lot of tests which are carried out following railway directions and needs to prevent damage of the system. In general, a railway has limitation of an experimental space by narrow width, sleeper and etc., and background noise by a reflector exists. The existing surface wave tests need a minimum space, and it is difficult to get a reliable test results on account of background noise effect. Therefore, it is difficult or impossible to apply to existing surface wave test of subgrade and ballast. In this study, the HWAW method is applied to determine a shear wave velocity profile of the underground. The HWAW method is the experiment which is able to be carried out on a narrow space, and it determines share wave velocity of a site by measuring the wave from surface sources on the same spot. In addition, it removes effects of background noise accordingly to a signal processing using harmonic wavelet transforms, so it is useful to evaluate subgrade of a high-speed railway in the narrow space and the situation of background noise. In order to check an application of the HWAW method, an experiment is carried out on a high-speed railway field and a test result is compared to boring results.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.299-304
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• 2010

We should manage the target locations according to the deterioration degree of the ballast for the rational and economical ballast cleaning. For this, it's required to define the logics calculating the crushing rates and suggest the threshold values for the ballast cleaning. This paper introduce the system modules that estimate the ballast's deterioration degree refers to the results of the previous study("A Study on the Crushing Characteristic of the Ballast Gravel at High-Speed Railroad", Journal of the Korean Society for Railway, Vol.11, No.4, pp.384~389), enroll the target locations where the ballast cleaning is required.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.268-273
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• 2008

The ballast, one of track components, plays an essential role as intermedium in transmitting train load to subgrade safely, and the deterioration of ballast directly effects the growth of track irregularity. So far, gravel fining of ballast track was mainly related to the repetition of train loads, but was gradually increased with using MTT(Multiple Tie Tamper) recently. Therefore, in this study, an evaluation of the abrasion and crush process of ballast particles was performed with outdoor field test by MTT works. From this study, the amount of abrasion and crush of ballast particles appeared to increase linearly with MTT works, and the gradient of particle size distribution curve appeared to deviate gradually from a criterion of aggregated ballast size distribution in high-speed railroad.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.1024-1028
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• 2008

The ballast, one of track components, plays an essential role as intermedium in transmitting train load to subgrade safely, and the deterioration of ballast directly effects the growth of track irregularity. In this study, we determined the main factor of ballast deterioration was miniature of ballast gravel caused MTT(Multiple Tie Tamper) works and accumulated traffic loads. To estimate the deterioration characteristics of ballast, we carried out field test through track construction for test and the model test simulating the actual operation environment, have done a comparative analysis with the sample's result(crushing rate) of high-speed railroad running actually.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.633-639
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• 2010

Cold area in korea, railway roadbed and gravel ballast was occurred frost-heaving. So during winter, track was rising and during thaw, track was sinking. In order to prevent the damage of frost-heaving, we have applied a few countermeasures which are circumfusion of calcium chloride and replacement of gravel ballast method. This countermeasures effect is feeble, not continuous and not eco-friendly. This study suggested that we use wasted tire-chips in frost-heaving area and considered appropriate new method to maintenance. This method was named "A Method of Wasted Tire-Chips Post". To prove effect of this method, we have tested in laboratory and field. The result of frost-heaving-ratio field test was decreased frost-heaving-ratio about 50% using "A Method of Wasted Tire-Chips Post".

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.715-722
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• 2016

Most of the domestic railroad tracks are ballast track and repetitive maintenance is required in this track. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize maintenance process for maintenance cost reduction and more effective maintenance. For this, it is important to develop a reasonable settlement progressive model of ballast layer. However, the behavior of ballast is different to that of soils, since ballast is composed of large coarse gravel. Thus, in this study, we carried out numerical analysis by using the discrete element method (PFC 2D) for better understanding of ballast settlement and development of reasonable settlement progressive model. And, we evaluated the settlement of ballast according to particles shape, porosity and loading conditions.