M.

GRDAMAND MOHAMMED
grdamand_etc@yahoo.co.uk

Lecture 3
Summery of Lecture 2
 Tracked Deformation/ Measurement
1. Longitudinal Track Profile
2. Visual inspection
3. Ballast / Sub-ballast / Subgrade Investigation
4. Radar Survey
5. Structural Evaluation
 Ballast Properties
1. Particle Strength
2. Granular Material Behaviour
3. Properties of an Ideal Ballast
 Permanent Deformation within Ballast
 Strength and Permanent Deformation
 Ballast Fouling

2
Lecture Contents
 SUB-BALLAST AND SUBGRADE
 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY
 ‘BEAM ON ELASTIC FOUNDATION’ ANALYSIS

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

1. Effect on Ballast Properties

• Ballast cannot be considered in isolation. All granular materials
are affected by their boundary conditions.

• If ballast is confined in any way, it will

appear to be much stiffer than if it is not.

• When the load is applied, the particles will

try to slip one over another, but those at
the edge will not be able to move far, more
or less preventing the rest of them from
moving either. First Case

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

1. Effect on Ballast Properties

• If, on the other hand, the ballast was surrounded by relatively
low stiffness soil, then the edge particles can move quite easily
and this will lead to inter-particle slip throughout the mass of
the material.

• In the first case, the stiffness may be

measured at, say, 200MPa. In the
second case, it is more likely to be
100MPa or less.

Low Stiffness

Second Case
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SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

The Effect of Confinement

Confined Modulus (MPa) / v x 100 300
compression 250
Increasing confinement
testing:
200
If it’s better 150
confined it
100
will appear
50 Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
to be stiffer
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Number of load applications
SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

The Effect of Confinement

Segmented wall Rubber

Strain-gauged
band

The PUMA is a confined compression test

SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

The Effect of Confinement

Maybe 200MPa Probably 80MPa

vs
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

1. Effect on Ballast Properties

So: If the subgrade soil is soft, a SUB-BALLAST layer
should ideally be used.

• The sub-ballast acts as a sort of ‘sacrificial’ layer.

• On soft soil the sub-ballast itself will not appear to
have very good properties, but it allows the ballast
above to feel that it has reasonable support.
• It will then appear to have satisfactory properties
itself.

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SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

The Effect of Confinement

80MPa
100MPa
120MPa

Sub-ballast
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

2. What is Sub-ballast?
• Often, sub-ballast is just ballast which is a little lower down in
the structure.
• On an old track, which has been re-ballasted many times, the
most recent, clean ballast will sit on top of older layers of
increasingly fouled ballast.
• These layers can be thought of as sub-ballast, but were never
designed to be so.

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

i. have reasonable strength and

A designed sub-ballast stiffness
should: ii. act as a separator between
ballast and soil

• It lies below the level of tamping, so it does not need to be

‘reworkable’ as the ballast does.
• It does not need to have the high void content of ballast
because it doesn’t break down so easily due to its less severe
loading.

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SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

As a Result Sub-ballast:
Usually a broadly-graded crushed rock
Sometimes in practice it is just underlying fouled ballast

Should have better strength/stiffness than subgrade

Forms a barrier between subgrade soil and ballast

 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
3. Alternatives
i. A Geogrid

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
• The interlock between the grid and the ballast (or subballast)
stones means that the stones are prevented from moving
sideways.
• This is a form of confinement.
• It means that the ballast ‘thinks’ it is sitting on a stiff support
and so appears to be stiff, strong and to resist deformation.

• Cost: around $5.00 per square metre – which would buy about
80mm of sub-ballast)

• This solution is quite widely used these days on problem sites.

• One difficulty however is that the grid is a nuisance if you ever
want to dig the trackbed up again.
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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

Geogrid: West Coast Main Line

3.5
10m+0y - 10m+220y
Std Deviation (35m rail top) 3 Reinforced 10m+220y - 10m+440y
sections 10m+440y - 10m+660y
Sections 2.5 10m+660y - 10m+880y
Tamp 10m+880y - 10m+1100y
that were 2
worse
1.5
appear to
have been 1

improved by 0.5
Renewal
the geogrid 0
0 50 100 150 200
Week Number
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

Geogrid – Nottingham Research

The University
of Nottingham
Railway Test
Facility
3 Sleepers
95kN load/sleeper
Sinusoidal loading
Loaded 90 out of phase
3Hz ≈ 17mph
1m ballast/subgrade
Tamping bank available
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

Geogrid – Nottingham Research

12
The University Unreinforced

of Nottingham Settlement (mm)

10 Geogrid Reinforced

Railway Test 8

Facility 6

0
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000
Number of load applications
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

Geogrid – Nottingham Research

 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

Geogrid – Nottingham Research

35
Svertical Soverburden
Geogrid
Shorizontal spreads load
 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
ii. A Stabilised or Bound Foundation
• Pretty obviously, if the behaviour of ballast is so affected by
what it is sitting on, why not make the support layer really stiff?
The options are:
• In-situ stabilisation using cement, lime or both Placement of a plant-
mixed layer of cement bound material An asphalt layer of some sort

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
• For new track, this is not too difficult (though it requires
engineering knowledge on the part of the railway authority!).
• For example, it is standard practice to add an asphalt layer to
the foundation of heavily used tracks in Italy. The result is that
the ballast receives excellent support and will therefore
deteriorate much more slowly.

Stabilised/bound layer

For new track – not too difficult

For existing track – practically impossible!
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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
iii. Improvements to Existing track
• For existing track it is much more difficult. This is one of the key
areas of development at present.
• The aim is to devise a system which causes minimum disruption
to the operation of the railway, while giving the necessary
degree of subgrade improvement.

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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE
• Conventional ‘dig out and replace’
a) remove rails and sleepers to side of track
b) remove ballast
c) dig out and remove soft or contaminated materials
d) replace with a ‘filter’ (sand layer or geotextile), and compacted high
quality fill, possibly cement or lime stabilised, then sub-ballast
e) replace ballast (probably fresh material)
f) relay track
g) top up with ballast
h) tamp

This is a time consuming and

therefore expensive operation,
which means that railway
authorities avoid it if they
possibly can.
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 SUB-BALLAST & SUBGRADE

1. augur down between sleepers

iv. Mini-piling
2. introduce lime or cement slurry
through central part of augur
3. tamp if necessary
Possible pile points

• This has now been used in several places where other treatments didn’t
seem to work; also helpful in combating critical velocity problems.
 THICKNESS DESIGN
4. Design of
Ballast/Sub-ballast
thickness
• As well as the effect the
subgrade has on the
behaviour of the layers
above, it has the potential
to ‘fail’ itself. It is basically a
bearing capacity type
failure.

• The answer: make sure you

have enough ballast and
sub-ballast to protect the
subgrade.

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 THICKNESS DESIGN

Protecting the Subgrade

Stress (kPa)
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
0.1 8T 12T
20 kPa
If you don’t: 0.2 15 16T
10 18T
0.3 20T
0.4 22T
Heave 5 kPa
24T
0.5
0.6
0.7
Slip plane Depth of 0.8
0.9
subgrade
1.0
below 50 kPa
1.1
bottom of 40 kPa
30 kPa
1.2
sleepers (m)
 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY
1. Track Variability
Reasons of Track Variability
While many sections may need tamping (or stone-blowing) every
few weeks, others can be left for years.
Two key factors: The Subgrade
Inherent Rail Shape
a) Track with poor subgrade (and inadequate ballast/ sub-ballast
thickness) will always deteriorate rapidly.
b) A rail that has to be stressed when laid will tend to ‘unstress’
itself under the action of passing trains.

Result in both cases = rapidly deteriorating track.

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 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY
2. Drainage
• No unbound material performs well when saturated. Even a
potentially good subgrade will lose strength and stiffness if too
wet. Therefore, drainage is important.

Side ditches can readily be inspected and

maintained. However, many other drainage
techniques exist, which are equally in need of
maintenance. Non-functioning drainage can
deprive a subgrade of around half of its
inherent strength, leading to a much more rapid
rate of deterioration.
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 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY

Drainage
Even a potentially good subgrade will lose strength and
stiffness if too wet.
 Put a drain in  increase inherent track quality

Water Table 30MPa

60MPa
Wet, undrained ground
INHERENT TRACK QUALITY

Drainage

Drains come in different varieties.

But it isn’t always easy to find the free space
to put them in
 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY

3. Critical Velocity
In some cases, no matter how well the track is constructed, the
subgrade is of such low stiffness that a further effect comes into
play.
• Train loading causes a pulse of load to spread through the
ground.

Wave propagation
with speed v

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 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY

3. Critical Velocity
• Rapid train movement means that the waves in the ground are
‘foreshortened’.

Train speed V

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INHERENT TRACK QUALITY

3. Critical Velocity

Firm ground
When the train speed
approaches the speed
of ground waves,
there will be
‘constructive
interference’.
The result is large
amplitude vibrations.
Peak here if
Soft ground
 INHERENT TRACK QUALITY
3. Critical Velocity
• On most lines this is not a problem. It is only when track runs
over marshy ground that the effect is significant.
• Speed restrictions have to be placed in these cases.
• The speed of wave propagation is termed the critical velocity
and trains have to keep well below this value.

• [Note: problem overcome by piling under the Channel Tunnel

Rail Link on Rainham Marshes; mini-piling used in selected
locations elsewhere]

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 TRACK ANALYSIS
1. Idealising Track
Deflections

y
x P

M E, I
F 36
R = ky
 TRACK ANALYSIS

• This simplified approach to track deflection analysis replaces the

individual sleepers with a continuous support, where the stress
(R, in kN per m) is proportional to the deflection (y).
• ‘E’ is the Young’s modulus of the steel rails and ‘I’ is the 2nd
moment of area. This results in a problem which can be solved
exactly, termed ‘Beam on Elastic Foundation’.

• The first step is to consider a small length of rail, ẟx, and to look
at the forces applying to the element.

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 TRACK ANALYSIS

Beam on Elastic Foundation

Three equations can be written:

1) Curvature: - d2y/dx2 = M/EI

M+M
x Double-differentiate:
EI d4y/dx4 = - d2M/dx2
F+F
M 2) Moment balance: M = - F x
F
 dM/dx = F
Differentiate: - d2M/dx2 = dF/dx
Substitute: EI d4y/dx4 = dF/dx
ky x

3) Force balance: F = - ky  x  dF/dx = - ky

Substitute: EI d4y/dx4 = - ky  d4y/dx4 = - ky/EI
 TRACK ANALYSIS

Beam on Elastic Foundation

d4y/dx4 = - ky/EI

Solution: y = (Pλ/2 k) e–λx [sin λx + cos λx]

where: λ = (k / 4EI) 0.25
-0.5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0

0.5

1.5

2.5
 TRACK ANALYSIS

Beam on Elastic Foundation

Check: dy/dx = (Pλ2/2k) e–λx [-sinλx - cosλx + cosλx - sinλx]

= (Pλ2/2k) e–λx [-sinλx]
d2y/dx2 = (Pλ3/k) e–λx [sinλx - cosλx]
d3y/dx3 = (Pλ4/k) e–λx [-sinλx + cosλx + cosλx + sinλx]
= (2Pλ4/k) e–λx [cosλx]
d4y/dx4 = (2Pλ5/k) e–λx [-cosλx - sinλx]
= -y × 4λ4
= -y × k/EI – the original equation

From this we can calculate not only the deflected shape of the
track but also the shear and bending moment distribution.
 TRACK ANALYSIS

Beam on Elastic Foundation

Solution: y = (Pλ/2 k) e–λx [sin λx + cos λx]

where: λ = (k / 4EI) 0.25

So: M = -EI d2y/dx2 = -(PEI λ3/k) e–λx [sinλx - cosλx]

= - (P/4λ) e–λx [sinλx - cosλx]

And: F = - dM/dx = - (P/4) e–λx [-sinλx + cosλx +

cosλx + sinλx]
= - (P/2) e–λx [cosλx]
 TRACK ANALYSIS

• Example:

• What is the maximum bending moment in a rail with 2nd

Moment of Area 3300 𝑐𝑚4 , Modulus of Elasticity 210GPa, as a
set of 2 axles passes over, each of load 22 Tonnes and 1.2m
apart. The foundation is equivalent to a Modulus of Subgrade
Reaction of 35MN/m³ acting over a 2.5m trackbed width.

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TRACK ANALYSIS
Solution

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TRACK ANALYSIS

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…next lecture
 SUB-STRUCTURE STRESS ANALYSIS
 TRAIN DYNAMICS

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