Understanding the Track Structure of a Ballasted Track

Ballasted track, a common type of railway track, consists of a series of wooden or concrete sleepers (ties) laid on a compacted foundation. The sleepers support the rails, and the track is filled with ballast (crushed stones) to provide stability, drainage, and distribute loads. This versatile and widely used track system allows for efficient ...

Ballast and Subgrade Requirements Study: Railroad Track Substructure

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Railway ballast material selection and evaluation: A review

The properties of railway ballast material are affected by the local geologies and climatic environments from which the parent rock is sourced. These factors can make it challenging to select the ...

Railway ballast characteristics, selection criteria and performance

Railway ballast performance is dictated by a complex mix of mechanical properties. These effect its performance at the particle level for example in terms of particle degradation, but also at the ...

Subballast

Railways play an important role in current transportation systems. The ballast bed (granular layer) is placed between the sleeper and the subballast as a shock absorber to reduce the stress from sleeper to an acceptable level (Fig. 14.1 ). Ballast bed is made of crushed rocks of certain size (in 20–60 mm range).

1: Scheme showing the position of the rails, the sleepers …

Railway ballast is normally made of crushed rocks with grading (particle size distributions). Ballast is inevitably suffering from more rapid degradation. Because ballast keeps undergoing and ...

Functions of Track Ballast alongside the Railway Track

In fact, the track ballast serves a number of purposes. First of all, it makes sure that tracks stay in place when super-heavy trains roll by on them. It also plays an instrumental role in keeping any vegetation in check that might grow around the tracks (and make the ground beneath the tracks weaker). Another important aspect of track ballast ...

A numerical study of the lateral ballast resistance in railway tracks

Three-dimensional elastoplastic finite-element (FE) simulations of ballast deformation in a track with focus on lateral resistance have been conducted. Ballast geometry, vertical and lateral loading, and friction between ballast and sleeper are being varied in a parametric study. Sleeper displacements are studied under different conditions in ...

Ballast in Railway – Functions, Types & Testing Procedures

The ballast in railway is a layer of broken stones, gravel, moorum, or any other granular material placed and packed below and around sleepers for distributing load from the …

Railway ballast fouling, inspection, and solutions

Railway ballast fouling is always an inevitable issue related to railway performance and safety in ballasted tracks. This paper presents an overview of the railway ballast fouling mechanism, current works, perspective, and innovation. The paper first reviews the fouling mechanism with different fouling sources and their influence, …

Geomechanical Modelling of Railroad Ballast: A Review

In railway ballast applications, most of the DEM models for railroad ballast in the literature used the soft sphere discrete element method. Saussine et al. [ 152 ] and Lim and McDowell [ 153 ] were the first people who simulate the mechanical behaviour of railroad ballast using DEM.

Ballast in Railway : Types and Functions

Functions of Ballast in Railway Track. To transfer and distribute the load from sleepers to large area of formation. To provide effective drainage to the track. And …

Function of Ballast in Railway Track

Type of Ballast Broken Stone. It is the best material to be used in ballast for the railway track. Mostly this type of ballast is used on Indian Railway. Stone to be used as ballast must be hard, tough and nonporous. For …

Railway Track Substructure Failures, a Critical Literature …

Railway ballast is an important component of the track substructure that provides vertical, lateral, and longitudinal support, increases track resiliency, reduces stress applied to the subgrade ...

Essential Components Of A Railroad Track

Sand Ballast: Sand ballast is predominantly used in tracks where noise reduction is a priority, such as urban areas. It provides adequate drainage but may require more frequent maintenance due to its tendency to shift. Cinder Ballast: Cinder ballast is made from the combustion residues of coal and is commonly used in older railway systems ...

PERMANENT WAY MANUAL

Railway Board vide letter No. 2013/CE-II/TK/IRPWM dated 24/09/2019 asked IRICEN to redraft IRPWM with a view to remove obsolete topics and material components which are not in use now and make it for only Broad Gauge by adding recent developments ... BALLAST. 211 Ballast Specifications. 212 Ballast Profile/Section/Depth of Cushion. 213

Ballast – Functions and Types

Ballast is a granular material which is placed and packed below and around the railway sleepers. Different types of ballast materials used are broken stone, sand, gravel, moorum, brickbats etc. The main purpose of ballast …

Ballast: Know Its Definition, Functions, Types & Requirements

Types of Ballast in Railway 1. Broken stone Ballast. Fig 1: Broken Stone ballast . Broken stone is a widely used ballast in railways. It is obtained by crushing hard stones like granite, hard trap, quartzite etc. In lieu of broken stones, limestone and sandstone can also be used. It is suitable for high-speed railway tracks.

Ballast | Trains Magazine

Railway ballast or track ballast refers to crushed stones placed under the railway track. It forms the trackbed for sleepers to …

Performance Improvement of Ballasted Railway Tracks for …

A two-dimensional (2D) plane-strain finite element model of the ballasted railway track is developed using PLAXIS 2D (PLAXIS BV 2017).Figure 1 shows the track model, which comprises of rail, sleeper, ballast, capping (subballast), fill and subgrade layers. The model is discretized using 15-noded triangular elements which provide a …

What is railway ballast?

Railway ballast cleaning. Railway ballast cleaning is a specialized maintenance process crucial for maintaining the integrity and performance of railroad tracks to prevent or maintain railway track fouling or contamination. . Railway track fouling is the phenomenon where the ballast composition changes to finer particles and it causes the ...

Micromechanical Particle Interactions in Railway Ballast …

A model of direct shear test on railway ballast based on the discrete-element method (DEM) was developed using generated nonbreakable discrete elements as individual ballast particles and validated by closely matching the predicted shear stress–strain behavior with laboratory test results. The DEM model simulation …

Main Parts Of A Railroad Track

A railroad track is mainly composed of rails, railroad ties (sleepers), fasteners, railway switch, ballast, subgrade. The components of railway track play different roles in providing support for trains. The track structure is built for rolling stock to roll upon safely and smoothly. Both passenger lines and freight lines are beneficial from ...

(PDF) Use of geosynthetics for stabilizing recycled ballast in railway

The laboratory test results indicate that the deformation of railway ballast, both fresh and recycled, 20 Settlement of ballast (mm) 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 Placem ent depth of geogrids (m m ) Figure 8 – Optimum location of geosynthetics in rail track substructure by finite elements increases non-linearly with ...

Review of ballast track tamping: Mechanism, challenges and …

Tamping is the most widely applied means for ballast track maintenance, and it is necessarily performed for newly built railway lines [15]. It is also helpful for improving track stability and ballast bed performance. In addition, it corrects the ballasted track geometry by lifting up and shifting the rail and sleeper.

Rail Track Ballast – Tarmac

Rail ballast aggregate is typically 30-50mm aggretate. Hard and tough stone is required for rail ballast. Resists the severe attrition in a railway trackbed environment. Tarmac ballast is typically granite as its strength delivers natural durability., although other aggregate types can satisfy the requirements for trackbed ballast ...

(PDF) Developing Track Ballast Characteristic Guideline In …

The rail ballast is rail track component with the greatest weight and volume, it can be executed with different particle size distribution (PSD). The materials are usually crushed rocks that vary ...