Wet/dry influences on dynamic characteristics of railway ballast

Railway ballasted track, traditional railway track, consists of steel rails, sleepers, fastener system, ballast, sub-ballast and subgrade. Railway ballasted track has been widely used in railway system around the world. Ballast, which supports the sleepers uniformly, is highly experienced deterioration. The functions of ballast are to transmit the load from sleeper to sub-ballast and sub-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. The ballast deterioration can produce high settlement and lead to track deterioration. Based on the fact that the impact of climate change affect and produce huge losses in railway system, the effect of environmental are needed to consider. In fact, flooding can cause train disruption and destabilize the track. Based on the open literature, the behaviour of ballast under water has not been studied. In this study, the dynamic properties of railway ballast, such as frequency, damping, stiffness, are studied with the consideration of effect of water. The vibration characteristics of ballast are considered using Prosig P8004 noise and vibration measurement systems. The various height of water are compared to dry ballast. The results obtained can be used for further numerical modelling of railway ballasted track considering the effect of water. This is the world first to investigate the dynamic characteristics of railway ballast under water.