• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.268-274
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• 2011

In railway, Ballast plays an essential role as intermedium in transmitting train load to subgrade safely. Gyoung-Bu HSL 1st phase consists of ballasted track except for over 5km long tunnels. Ballast track occurred track irregularity by train loads and requires periodic maintenance work. However, Repetitive train operation and tamping work cause to accelerate track irregularity and ballast deterioration such as abrasion and crushing. For these reason, Track irregularity areas had occurred ballast cleaning work to improve track quality. However, for the train to run safety, ballast cleaner working area needs train speed reduction and track stabilization work due to ballast relaxation and initial settlement. In this study, according to train speed-up and cumulative traffic tonnage, we measured and analyzed the track settlement and acceleration of sleepers to evaluate of track stabilization in order to keep the ballast condition stable after cleaning work.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1747-1755
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• 2008

Design of the reinforced roadbed thickness is concerned with safe operation of trains at specified levels of speed, axle load and tonnage. There are two methods for evaluating it. One is using an experimental equation and the other is using elastic theory with considering axle load, material properties of subsoils and allowable elastic settlement. Multi-layered theory is used to determine reinforced roadbed thickness by RTRI. Although their reinforced roadbed thickness is designed with an objective of achieving a minimum standard 2.5mm of settlement on the subgrade surface, it is hardly applied to real design. Li(1994) has suggested the experimental model which design approach is to limit plastic strain and deformations for the design period. It is worth due to adopting soil equivalent number of repeated load application. Moreover, it has been a more advanced method than existing design methods because including resilient modulus of subsoil beneath track, soil deviator stress caused by train axle loads and MGT. In this paper, it is analyzed under domestic track conditions to estimate the reinforced roadbed thickness with different soil types.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-232
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• 2023

A comprehensive study was conducted to design economical foundations for a number of buildings on soft cohesive soil in the southern coastal regions of Iran. Both static and seismic loads were considered in the design process. Cyclic experiments indicated that the cohesive soil of the area has potential for softening. Consequently, the major challenge in the design stages was relatively high dimensions of settlement, under both static and seismic loadings. Routine soil-improvement methods were too costly for the vast area of the project. After detailed numerical modeling of different scenarios, we concluded that, in following a performance-based design approach and applying a special time schedule of construction, most of the settlement would dissipate during the construction of the buildings. Making the foundation as rigid as possible was another way to prevent any probable differential settlement. Stiff subgrade of stone and lime mortar under the grid foundation and a reinforced concrete slab on the foundation were considered as appropriate to this effect. In favor of an economical design, in case the design earthquake strikes the site, the estimations indicate no collapse of the buildings even if considerable uniform settlements may occur. This is a considerable alternative design to costly soil-improvement methods.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.35-43
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• 2015

In this study, it was performed in characteristics of settlement of roadbed materials with variation of water content using cylinder model device. The ratio of settlement ($R_e$) of subgrade soils in the initial water content were about 2.08, whereas it was increased about 4.06 which resulted in increase two times in the initial water content. Also, it was monitoring long-term to measure variation of the field water contents at concrete track using rainfall measuring sensors. The water content at directly underneath of concrete track rarely seems to affect the variation of water content, but it was increased by about 4% than intial water content with 20 mm/hr rainfall index at slope section. As for the result from the field date, it was determined that the water content of the inner subgrade layer was rarely affect caused by more than 20 mm/h rainfall index during if good drainage system at concrete track properly maintained.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1287-1296
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• 2007

Recently, the high speed railway comes into the spotlight as the important and convenient traffic infrastructure. In Korea, Kyung-Bu high speed train service began in about 400km section at 2004, and the Ho-Nam high speed railway will be constructed by 2017. The high speed train will run with a design maximum speed of 300-350km/hr. Since the trains are operated at high speed, the differential settlement of subgrade under the rail is able to cause a fatal disaster. Therefore, the differential settlement of the embankment must be controlled with the greatest care. Furthermore, the characteristics and causes of settlements which occurred under construction and post-construction should be investigated. A considerable number of studies have been conducted on the settlement of the natural ground over the past several decades. But little attention has been given to the compression settlement of the embankment. The long-term settlement of compacted fills embankments is greatly influenced by the post-construction wetting. This is called 'hydro collapse' or 'wetting collapse'. In spite of little study for this wetting collapse problem, it has been recognized that the compressibility of compacted sands, gravels and rockfills exhibit low compressibility at low pressures, but there can be significant compression at high pressures due to grain crushing by several researchers(Marachi et al. 1969, Nobari and Duncan 1972, Noorany et al. 1994, Houston et al. 1993, Wu 2004). The characteristics of compression of fill materials depend on a number of factors such as soil/rock type, as-compacted moisture, density, stress level and wetting condition. Because of the complexity of these factors, it is not easy to predict quantitatively the amount of compression without extensive tests. Therefore, in this research I carried out the wetting collapse tests, with focusing in various soil/rock type, stress levels, wetting condition more closely.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.406-411
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• 2011

An active application of tram is being expected in Korea in the near future. For the tram operation in urban area, the embedded rail tracks where rails are completely embedded with pavements is required. When the embedded rail track is constructed on fine-grained subgrade soil, excessive cumulative plastic settlements due to repetitive tram road may occur. In this study, repetitive load tests were carried out to evaluate the accumulative plastic settlements of subgrade soils underneath embedded rail tracks. Two real-scale track specimens of 5 m lengths were constructed considering the maximum cant of a curved line. Repetitive tram loads of three million times were applied to the tracks in 5 Hz frequency. The accumulating patterns of plastic settlements were analyzed. Tram load distributing effects of the concrete slabs were also evaluated using the measured data of earth pressures cells that were installed underneath track. Also the measured settlements were compared with the estimated settlements calculated from an existing experimental equations, and its validity is discussed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.23-29
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• 2020

The soil structures settle down continuously under cyclic dynamic loading after opening railway lines. This study examined the characteristics of the settlement and stiffness of cement-treated soils with the change in the content of fines under cyclic dynamic loading. Eighteen cases of the test were carried out with the changes in the fines content of soils, cement content, and curing days. Based on the test results, cement-treated soils containing more than 3% of cement could decrease settlement sufficiently even with a high portion of fines under cyclic dynamic loading. In addition, the elastic and plastic settlements could be reduced using 3 to 4% cement to the level of 1/4 and 1/6, respectively. In the viewpoint of stiffness, the resilient modulus of cement-treated soils increases with increasing cement content. Using more than 3% of cement, the 80MPa compaction stiffness standard for the upper subgrade of railways was satisfied, even with 40% of fines content of soils.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.13-21
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• 2017

Ballasted track has been used as track system for more than 100 years. Ballasted track has advantages of low construction cost, flexible maintenance, low noise and vibration, and so on. However, ballasted track leads to continuous settlement which causes maintenance. Recently, increase in speed, traffic volume, and weight of train requires more frequent maintenance. Fouling, well-known phenomenon of accumulation of fine materials due to intrusion of subgrade and breakage of ballast materials, expedites the settlement (i.e., irregular settlement) of track. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be one of non-destructive tools that can evaluate fouling level of ballast. In this paper, a gain function based on the attenuation characteristics of ballast material is suggested in conjunction with Hilbert transform. Lab box tests and full-scale tests indicate that the suggested method reasonably classifies clean, fouled layers, and subgrade. However, additional study to eliminate effect of sleeper and to include the scattering features of the electromagnetic wave in ballast voids should be required in order to enhance the accuracy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.386-393
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• 2013

In this study, the so-called repeated plate load bearing test (RPBT) used to get $E_{v2}$ values in order to check the degree of compaction of subgrade, and to get design parameters for determining the thickness of the trackbed foundation, is investigated. The test procedure of the RPBT method is scrutinized in detail. $E_{v2}$ values obtained from the field were verified in order to check the reliability of the test data. The $E_{v2}$ values obtained from high-speed rail construction sites were compared to converted modulus values obtained from resonant column (RC) test results. For these tests, medium-size samples composed of the same soils from the field were used after analyzing stress and strain levels existing in the soil below the repeated loading plates. Finite element analyses, using the PLAXIS and ABAQUS programs, were performed in order to investigate the impact of the strain influence coefficient. This was done by getting newly computed $I_z$ to get the precise strain level predicted on the subgrade surface in the full track structure; under wheel loading. It was verified that it is necessary to use precise loading steps to construct nonlinear load-settlement curves from RPBT in order to get correct $E_{v2}$ values at the proper strain levels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.289-311
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• 1991

Analysis of supported excavation system by Elasto-Plastic Isoparametric Finite Element Method and Elasto-Plastic Beam Method have been conducted for the simulation of stepwise underground excavation. Conventional methods, fixed Supported Beam and Spring Supported Beam method, also have been examined and compared with the results of elasto-plastic beam method and field data. Except unavoidable result of upward ground settlement near the top of retaining wall and relatively high bending moment of wall at each excavation level, satisfactory results have been derived using elasto-plastic isopara metric finite element method. The results from elasto-plastic beam analysis program, developed by the author, are proved to be fit field data in acceptable variance as shown in the paper. Displacement and bending moment, of the wall by conventional methods, both fixed supported beam and spring supported beam, are always underestimated than field data, and attention must be given that the diffence increases with deeper excavation depth and lower horizontal subgrade reaction of the ground.