Numerical Evaluation of Ballast Performance on Railways by Using Geocell Enclosure

In recent years, due to population growth and land trade, the need for more rail transportation is felt. However, there are many problems due to the subsurface conditions and the passage of the railway tracks. These problems can lead to uneven subsidence, resulting in vertical fractures and derailment. there are various improvement methods such as hammering (grouting), grouting jet and limestone column (and stone column for the railway bed) which is one of the effective solutions to prevent the destruction and failure of the railway using geosynthetics materials and one of the types of these products are geocells. in this paper, to evaluate the effect of rail ballast enclosure, a parametric study with several geocell layers was performed using numerical modeling and finite difference analysis. The purpose of the parametric study is to investigate the effect of the number of reinforcement layers (geocell (bed stiffness), modulus of elasticity) and the internal friction angle of the railway ballast on the enclosure of the geocell in combination with the ballast. It shows an increase in load-bearing capacity, a decrease in subsidence and a decrease in lateral displacement, especially when the bed stiffness (modulus of elasticity) and the internal friction angle are high and the rail is low

Keywords:

Ballast , Enclosure , Geocell , Hardness (modulus of elasticity)