Effect of rock strength on the degradation of ballast equipped with under sleeper pad using discrete element method

Saeid Farsi 1, Morteza Esmaeili 2, * and Reza Naseri 1

1 Department of Civil Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
2 School of Railway Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2024, 11(01), 2579–2586.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2024.11.1.0349
Publication history: 
Received on 15 January 2024; revised on 23 February 2024; accepted on 26 February 2024
 
Abstract: 
This study investigates the influence of Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) of ballast rock cores and the Bedding Modulus of Under Sleeper Pads (USP-BM) on railway track deterioration, investigating key factors such as settlement and aggregate fragmentation through Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations. These simulations encompass three scenarios representing different types of ballast aggregates: without a pad, with a soft pad, and with a hard pad, with rock cores categorized by UCS values into soft (159 MPa), medium (210 MPa), and hard (285 MPa) classes. The model involves cyclic loading of a sleeper section embedded in ballast, subject to fluctuating vertical loads between 3 and 43 kN at a frequency of 3 Hz, with a total of 15 load cycles applied to emulate real-world conditions, and its accuracy is confirmed through experimental validation. The study concludes that a soft USP is most effective in mitigating ballast settlement and breakage, highlighting the pivotal role of UCS values of ballast rock cores in the management of track deterioration.
 
Keywords: 
Ballast Box Test; Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS); Under Sleeper Pads (USPs); Discrete Element Method (DEM); Degradation
 
Full text article in PDF: 
 
Copyright information: 

Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0