Railway ballast

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 dissipating most of the train loadings, furthermore, the train speed and freight weight are increasing, causing more intensive loadings to ballast. To...

Rheology study of ballast-sleeper interaction with particle image Velocimetry (PIV) and discrete element modelling (DEM)

Ballast rheology is a phenomenon that describes movements of ballast particles due to the discrete nature, which eventually leads to the ballast bed fluid deformation after a long-time service. In most cases, ballast rheology is the main reason of track irregularity that leads to some track defects, e.g., hanging sleeper and mud spots....