Discrete element method analysis of lateral resistance of fouled ballast bed

Abstract

The lateral resistance of sleeper plays an important role in ensuring the stability of a railway track, which may change in the operation of railway, due to the fouling in the ballast bed. In this work, discrete element method was adopted to investigate the effect of fouling on the lateral resistance of sleeper. The shape information of ballast was captured by method of three-dimensional vision reconstruction. In order to calibrate the mechanical parameters and verify the models, a lateral resistance field test was carried out by using a custom-made device. The contact force distributions in the different parts of sleeper as well as the interaction between ballast and sleeper were discussed in depth. The results show that fouling of ballast bed evidently reduces the lateral resistance of sleeper and the decreasing degree is also related to the fouled position of ballast bed, in the order of shoulder > bottom > side. Therefore, the effect of fouling, especially the fouling in the ballast shoulder, on the lateral resistance of sleeper, should be taken into account in ballast track maintenance work.

Keywords

discrete element modelling / three-dimensional vision reconstruction / ballast / lateral resistance of sleeper / ballast fouling

References

[1] LiD-q, SeligE T. Method for railroad track foundation design. I: Development [J]. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 1998, 124(4): 316-322

[2] LiD-q, SeligE T. Method for railroad track foundation design. II: Applications [J]. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 1998, 124(4): 323-329

[3] LouisL P, PowrieW. Contribution of base, crib, and shoulder ballast to the lateral sliding resistance of railway track: A geotechnical perspective [J]. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 2011, 225(2): 113-128

[4] GaoL, GuA-jun. Discussion on the new testing method of ballast resistance [J]. Journal of Northern Jiaotong University, 1999, 23(4): 123-127

[5] ZakeriJ, MirfattahiB, FakhariM. Lateral resistance of railway track with frictional sleepers [J]. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Transport, 2012, 165(2): 151-155

[6] IndraratnaB, NgoN T, RujikiatkamjornC, VinodJ S. Behavior of fresh and fouled railway ballast subjected to direct shear testing: discrete element simulation [J]. International Journal of Geomechanics, 2014, 14(1): 34-44

[7] KocW, WilkA, ChrostowskiP, GrulkowsjiS. Tests on lateral resistance in railway tracks during the operation of a tamping machine [J]. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 2011, 225(3): 325-340

[8] YangY-li. Experimental study on design parameters of longitudinal and lateral resistance of ballast bed for III-type concrete sleeper [J]. Journal of Railway Engineering Society, 2010, 10: 49-51

[9] CundallP A, StrackO D L. A discrete numerical model for granular assemblies [J]. Geotechnique, 1979, 29(1): 47-65

[10] LuM, McdowellG R. The importance of modelling ballast particle shape in the discrete element method [J]. Granular Matter, 2007, 9(1/2): 69-80

[11] AikawaA. Techniques to measure effects of passing trains on dynamic pressure applied to sleeper bottoms and dynamic behavior of ballast stones [J]. Quarterly Report of RTRI, 2009, 50(2): 102-109

[12] ForbesK, NicollsF, GerhardD J, VoigtA. Shape-fromsilhouette with two mirrors and an uncalibrated camera [C]. Computer Vision–ECCV 2006, 2006BerlinSpringer165-178

[13] ForbesK, AnthonV, BodikaN. Visual hulls from single uncalibrated snap-shots using two planar mirrors [C]. Proceedings of the 15th Annual Symposium of the Pattern Recognition, 2004Cape TownAssociation of South African326-355

[14] HuangHaiDiscrete element modeling of railroad ballast using imaging based aggregate morphology characterization [D], 2010ChicagoChicago University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

[15] HuangH, TutumluerE. Discrete Element Modeling for fouled railroad ballast [J]. Construction and Building Materials, 2011, 25(8): 3306-3312

[16] HuangH, TutumluerE, HashashY M A, GhaboussiJ. Discrete element modeling of aggregate behavior in fouled railroad ballast [J]. Geotechnical Special Publication, 2009, 192: 33-41

[17] DombrowW, HuangH, TutumluerE. Comparison of coal dust fouled railroad ballast behavior—Granite vs. limestone [C]. Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields, 2009NetherlandsCRC Press1349-1357

[18] IndraratnaB, NgoN T, RujikiatkamjornC. Deformation of coal fouled ballast stabilized with geogrid under cyclic load [J]. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2012, 139(8): 1275-1289

[19] NgoN T, IndraratnaB, RujikiatkamjornC. DEM simulation of the behaviour of geogrid stabilised ballast fouled with coal [J]. Computers & Geotechnics, 2014, 55(1): 224-231