• International Journal of Railway
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.59-63
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• 2013

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of geogrid for conventional ballasted track and asphalt concrete underlayment track using PLAXIS finite element program. Geogrid element was modeled at various locations that include subballast/subgrade, subballast/ballast interfaces, middle of the ballast, and one-third depth of the ballast. The results revealed that the effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement appeared to be larger for ballasted track structure compared to asphalt concrete underlayment track. Particularly, in case of installing geogrid at one-third depth of ballast layer in a conventional ballasted track, the most effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement was achieved. The influence of geogrid axial stiffness on track substructure response was not clear to conclude. Further validations using a discrete element method along with experimental investigation are considered as a future study. The effect of asphalt concrete layer modulus was evaluated. The results exhibited that higher layer modulus seems to be effective in controlling displacement and strain of track substructure. However it also yields slightly higher stresses within track substructure. It infers that further validations are required to come up with optimum asphalt concrete mixture design to meet economical and functional criteria.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.46-56
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• 2014

The superstructure of the railway track undertakes the forces that develop during train passage and distributes them towards its seating. The track panel plays a key role in terms of load distribution, while at the same time it maintains the geometrical distance between the rails. The substructure and ballast undergo residual deformations under high stresses that contribute to the deterioration of the so-called geometry of the track. The track stiffness is the primary contributing factor to the amount of the stresses that develop on the substructure and is directly influenced by the fastening resilience. Four methods from the international literature are used in this paper to calculate the loads and stresses on the track substructure and the results are compared and discussed. A parametric investigation of the stresses that develop on the substructure of different types of railway tracks (i.e. balastless vs ballasted) is performed and the results are presented as a function of the total static track stiffness.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.775-784
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• 2017

This study is devoted to developing many new substructure models for ballasted railway track by using the pyramid model philosophy. As the effect of railway embankment has been less considered in the previous studies in the field of vehicle/track interaction, so the present study develops the pyramid models in the presence of railway embankment and implements them in vehicle/track interaction dynamic analyses. Considering a moving car body as multi bodies with 10 degrees of freedom and the ballasted track including rail, sleeper, ballast, subgrade and embankment, two categories of numerical analyses are performed by considering the new substructure systems including type A (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the ballast layer) or type B (initiation of stress overlap areas in adjacent sleepers from the subgrade layer). A comprehensive sensitivity analyses are performed on effective parameters such as ballast height, sleepers spacing and sleeper width. The results indicate that the stiffness of subgrade, embankment and foundation increased by increasing the ballast height. Also, by increasing the ballast height, rail and ballast vertical displacement decreased.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1113-1118
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• 2004

Ballasted track is constructed in consideration of the maintenance. The application time and frequency of MTT(Multiple Tie Tamper) and BS(Ballast Cleaner) depend on track geometry measurements. This paper presents the application of Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR), Falling Weight Deflectometer(FWD), and Portable Ballast Sampler (PBS) to evaluate the effects of track geometry due to substructure deterioration and to build a reliable substructure evaluation system.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2014

A number of attempts has been made to reinforce ballasted track substructure to meet the requirement of high-speed operation and effective rehabilitation of existing railroads. For the purpose of this, the use of geogrid has been applied, and the benefit of its use has been recognized via previous studies. In this study, an experimental pullout test was carried out to investigate the influence of normal stress on pullout strength of geogrid using different types of soil and geogrid. The results revealed that the pullout resistance generally tends to increase proportional to normal stress while the pullout coefficient interaction decreases, which is a function of material interface properties, such as the friction angle of soil, and interlocking condition between soil and geogrid. In addition, a methodology based on work-energy concept was proposed to evaluate effectiveness of geogrid and limitedly verified using test results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2013

Based on Korean railway design standards, the thicknesses of the reinforced roadbeds of conventional and high speed railways are different, and so too, for the size distribution of the ballast particles. Accordingly, considerable cost would be required to increase operating speeds of conventional lines, in particular related to changing from a ballasted track system to a ballastless one. In this study, applicability of a roadbed which supports conventional ballasted track, for use as a ballastless track for a high speed rail line was examined. A reinforced roadbed for a conventional railway is 20cm thick, and the type of material used for a conventional reinforced roadbed is M-40 (crushed gravel for road embankments). A dynamics test was conducted to evaluate the occurrence of the permanent settlement of the track substructure. These results suggest that, without changes to the track substructure, an operational speed of 400km/h is feasible with a ballastless track. This result; however, is from laboratory experiments. Further studies, such as numerical analyses or field validation, are required.