Influence of Loading Frequency on the Performance of Geogrid-Reinforced Rubber-Coated Ballast under Cyclic Loading Conditions
摘要
Rubber-coated ballast (RCB) is a new inventive ballast made up of conventional ballast (CB) covered with rubber crumb using an Elastan binder. The influence of loading frequency (f) on the performance of unreinforced and geogrid-reinforced RCB and CB mix was explored under cyclic loading conditions. The test results revealed that the strains of RCB were higher than that of CB due to softening properties of crumb rubber. It was also seen that the deformations of all the ballast samples increased with the increase in f. Furthermore, the resilient modulus (Mr) and the damping ratio (Dr) of ballast were enhanced by the increase in f. Moreover, the geogrid-reinforced ballast exhibited lesser deformations, whereas the Mr and Dr improved compared to the unreinforced ballast samples. Additionally, the RCB has significantly reduced the particle breakage compared to the unreinforced CB. The findings from this study indicate that using geogrid-reinforced RCB-CB mix helps mitigate ballast degradation and improve the track’s energy dissipation capacity, thereby reducing the overall costs associated with track maintenance operations.