Investigating Geo-scrap aperture size effect on ballast shear resistance behavior using large-scale direct shear test

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 School of Railway Engineering Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)

2 School of Railway Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology

Abstract

Reinforcement of ballast with the help of Geogrids is one of the methods that have been studied by various researchers in the technical literature to increase the load capacity as well as reduce the deterioration of the ballast through the reduction of crushing and settlement. In this article, by introducing a new type of geogrids made with the help of waste rubber belts called Geo-scrape, their effect on the shear behavior of ballast in a large-scale shear test has been investigated. In this direction and in order to investigate the effect of the dimensions of the geo-scrap on the ballast shear behavior and by placing the geo-scrap with the dimensions of 5x5, 10x10 and 25x25 cm square in the upper layer, various tests were carried out under vertical loads of 50, 100 and 150 Kilopascal has been done and the results are presented in the form of shear stress-horizontal displacement curve, maximum shear strength, internal friction angle and dilatancy angle. The summary of the results shows that the mesh of 5x5 cm2 has provided the most favorable conditions for the ballast in terms of increasing the shear strength, increasing the internal friction angle and decreasing the dilatancy angle. So that by placing the geo-scrape with the dimensions the mesh of 5x5 cm2, the shear strength, internal friction angle and dilatancy angle are increased by 20%, 7% and 30% respectively compared to the unreinforced state.

Keywords

Main Subjects


Danesh, A., Palassi, M. and Mirghasemi, A. A. 2018. “Effect of sand and clay fouling on the shear strength of railway ballast for different ballast gradations”. Granul. Matter, 20: 1-14.
Esmaeili, M., Zakeri, J. A., Ebrahimi, H. and Khadem Sameni, M. 2016. “Experimental study on dynamic properties of railway ballast mixed with tire derived aggregate by modal shaker test”. Adv. Mech. Eng., 8(5), DOI: 10.1177/1687814016640245
Esmaeili, M., Aela, P. and Hosseini, A. 2017. “Experimental assessment of cyclic behavior of sand-fouled ballast mixed with tire derived aggregates”. Soil Dyn. Earthq. Eng., 98: 1-11.
Esmaeili, M. and Namaei, P. 2022. “Effect of mother rock strength on rubber-coated ballast (RCB) deterioration”. Constr. Build. Mater., 316: 126106.
Esmaeili, M. and Pourrashnoo, A. 2022. “Experimental investigation of shear strength parameters of ballast encased with geogrid”. Constr. Build. Mater., 335: 127491.
Gong, H., Song, W., Huang, B., Shu, X., Han, B., Wu, H. and Zou, J. 2019. “Direct shear properties of railway ballast mixed with tire derived aggregates: Experimental and numerical investigations”. Constr. Build. Mater., 200: 465-473.
Guo, Y., Markine, V., Qiang, W., Zhang, H. and Jing, G. 2019. “Effects of crumb rubber size and percentage on degradation reduction of railway ballast”. Constr. Build. Mater., 212: 210-224.
Hussaini, S. K. K. and Sweta, K. 2020. “Application of geogrids in stabilizing rail track substructure”. Front. Built Environ., 6: 20.
Indraratna, B., Khabbaz, H., Salim, W. and Christie, D. 2006. “Geotechnical properties of ballast and the role of geosynthetics in rail track stabilisation”. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.-Ground Improve., 10(3): 91-101.
Indraratna, B., Ngo, N. T. and Rujikiatkamjorn, C. 2011. “Behavior of geogrid-reinforced ballast under various levels of fouling”. Geotext. Geomembranes, 29(3): 313-322.
Jia, W., Markine, V., Guo, Y. and Jing, G. 2019. “Experimental and numerical investigations on the shear behaviour of recycled railway ballast”. Constr. Build. Mater., 217: 310-320.
Liu, C. N., Ho, Y. H. and Huang, J. W. 2009. “Large scale direct shear tests of soil/PET-yarn geogrid interfaces”. Geotext. Geomembranes, 27(1): 19-30.
Nimbalkar, S. and Indraratna, B. 2016. “Improved performance of ballasted rail track using geosynthetics and rubber shockmat”. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 142(8): 04016031.
Rohrman, A. K. and Ho, C. L. 2019. “Effects of fouling containing plastic fines on abraded ballast strength and deformation properties”. Transport. Geotech., 21: 100278.
Sadeghi, J., Kian, A. R. T., Ghiasinejad, H., Moqaddam, M. F. and Motevalli, S. 2020. “Effectiveness of geogrid reinforcement in improvement of mechanical behavior of sand-contaminated ballast”. Geotext. Geomembranes, 48(6): 768-779.
Selig, E. T. and Waters, J. M. 1994. “Track geotechnology and substructure management”. Thomas Telford.
Sol-Sánchez, M. and D'Angelo, G. 2017. “Review of the design and maintenance technologies used to decelerate the deterioration of ballasted railway tracks”. Constr. Build. Mater., 157: 402-415.
Suhr, B., Marschnig, S. and Six, K. 2018. “Comparison of two different types of railway ballast in compression and direct shear tests: experimental results and DEM model validation”. Granul. Matter, 20(4): 70.
Sweta, K. and Hussaini, S. K. K. 2019. “Behavior evaluation of geogrid-reinforced ballast-subballast interface under shear condition”. Geotext. Geomembranes, 47(1): 23-31.
Tajabadipour, M., Dehghani, M., Kalantari, B. and Lajevardi, S. H. 2021. “Evaluation of the performance of Geo Scrap Tire reinforcement with horizontal transverse members by large-scale pullout test”. Amirkabir J. Civ. Eng., 53(4): 1459-1478.
TolouKian, A. R., Sadeghi, J. and Zakeri, J. A. 2018. “Large-scale direct shear tests on sand-contaminated ballast”. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.-Geotech. Eng., 171(5): 451-461.