Study Behavior of Railway Ballast under Cyclic Loading

Densification and settlement are two important behavior parameters of railway ballast under cyclic loading. This paper presents numerical simulation using discrete element method which studies the evolution of densification of railway ballast in specified region under cyclic loading. The simulation results show that with the increase of cyclic loading time, the densification of railway ballast under sleeper is also increasing, and the rate of increase becomes smaller and smaller. This paper presents a new full-scale complete railway track loading experimental facility which studies the evolution of settlement of ballasted railway track under cyclic loading. The experimental results show that with the increase of number of load cycles, the settlement of ballasted railway track is also increasing, and the rate of increase becomes smaller and smaller.