Dynamic Properties Evaluation of Railway Ballast Using Impact Excitation Technique

Railway ballasted track, traditional railway track, consists of steel rails, sleepers, fastenersystem, ballast, sub-ballast and subgrade. Railway ballasted track has been widely used in railwaysystem around the world. Ballast, which supports the sleepers uniformly, is highly experienceddeterioration. The functions of ballast are to transmit the load from sleeper to sub-ballast andsub-grade, provide stability and adequate permeability for drainage of the railway track. By nature,one of the most track deterioration is located on ballast, which has highly nonlinearities [1]. Theballast deterioration can produce high settlement and lead to track deterioration. Based on the factthat the impact of climate change affect and produce huge losses in railway system, the effect ofenvironmental are needed to consider. In fact, flooding can cause train disruption and destabilize thetrack. Based on the open literature, the behaviour of ballast under water has not been studied. In thisstudy, the dynamic properties of railway ballast, such as frequency, damping, stiffness, are studiedwith the consideration of effect of water.