Incompatible thermal deformation of interlayers and corresponding damage mechanism of high-speed railway track structure

In the service period,the instability of ballastless track bed are mostly related to the damage of interlayers which are mainly resulted from the incompatible thermal deformation of interlayers.The temperature field within the ballastless track bed shows significant non-uniformity due to the large difference in the materials of various structure layers,leading to a considerable difference in the force bearing of different structure layers.Unit Ballastless Track Bed(UBTB)is most significantly affected by temperature gradient.The thermal deformation of interlayers within UBTB follows the trend of ellipsoid-shape buckling under the effect of the temperature gradient,resulting in a variation of the contact relationship between structure layers and a significant periodic irregularity on the rail.When the train travels on the periodically irregular rail,the structure layers are locally contacted,and the contact zone moves with the variation of the wheel position.This wheel-followed local contact greatly magnifies the interlayer stress,causes interlayer damage,and leads to a considerable increase in the bending moment of the track slab.Continuous Ballastless Track Bed(CBTB)is most significantly affected by the overall temperature variation,which may cause damage to the joint in CBTB.Under the combined action of the overall temperature rise and the temperature gradient,the interlayer damage continuously expands,resulting in bonding failure between structural layers.The thermal force in the continuous track slabs will cause the up-heave buckling and the sudden large deformation of the track slab,and the loss of constraint boundary of the horizontal stability.For the design of a ballastless track structure,the change of bearing status and structural damage related to the incompatible thermal deformation of interlayers should be considered.

Early Warning of Foundation Settlement Deformation for Ballastless High-Speed Railway Tracks

There has been rapid development of high-speed railway lines, especially passenger-dedicated railway lines, in China. Trains are traveling at speeds exceeding 250 km per hour and they require highly smooth tracks to ensure safety. However, there have been no in-depth studies on the early warning of the settlement of high-speed railway lines in China or abroad. Most methods use a simple model based on data processing and decision rules. The core issues of early warning lie in the science and rationality of decision rules. The present paper therefore investigates novel and critical indexes for the warning of settlement under high-speed railway lines according to existing norms and field data, and several essential indexes of deformation warning are suggested through theoretical and experimental analysis.

Deformation characteristics and safety assessment of a high-speed railway induced by undercutting metro tunnel excavation

Stratum deformation(settlement) is a challenging issue in tunnel engineering, especially when construction of metro tunnels has to undercut high-speed railway. For this purpose, we used the FLAC30 software to analyze the stratum settlement characteristics of high-speed railway at different crossing angles intersected by metro tunnel, in terms of ground settlement trough, stratum slip line and irregularity of ballastless tracks. According to the evolution of the stratum settlement at different angle regions, an optimized angle is proposed for the actual project design. In order to reduce the influence of stratum settlement on the safety of high-speed railway, an approach of safety assessment is proposed for the shield engineering undercutting high-speed railway, as per Chinese specifications using numerical results and on-site conditions. A case study is conducted for the shield tunnel section crossing the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway between the Guangzhou North Railway Station and the Huacheng Road Station, which represents the first metro tunnel project passing below a high-speed railway in China. A series of measures is taken to ensure the safe excavation of the shield tunnel and the operation of the high-speed railway. The results can provide a technical support for performing a safety evaluation between high-speed railways and metro tunnels.

Accumulative deformation in railway track induced by high-speed traffic loading of the trains

Prediction and control of the permanent settlement of a track caused by traffic loading from trains is crucial to high-speed railway design and maintenance. In this study, a unified prediction model of accumulative deformation of geomaterials used in railway construction subjected to cyclic loadings is introduced and calibrated using physical model testing. Based on this versatile model, a calculation approach to determine the track structure settlement under repeated loadings caused by the movement of the wheel axle of the train is proposed. Regression analysis on the physical model testing is adopted to determine the parameters involved in the computational approach. Comparison of model test data and computed results shows that the parameters obtained from the back-analysis are consistent throughout the various testing conditions, and the proposed calculation approach is capable of satisfactorily predicting the accumulative settlement of the railway roadbed and subgrade soil for various axle loads and loading cycles. A case study of a high-speed railway is performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in realistic engineering applications. The computation results from the settlement development of a roadbed and subgrade soil are presented and discussed.

Image-Aided Analysis of Ballast Particle Movement Along a High-Speed Railway

As a core infrastructure of high-speed railways,ballast layers constituted by graded crushed stones feature noteworthy particle movement compared with normal railways,which may cause excessive settlement and have detrimental effects on train operation.However,the movement behavior remains ambiguous due to a lack of effective measurement approaches and analytical methods.In this study,an image-aided technique was developed in a full-scale model test using digital cameras and a colorbased identification approach.A total of 1274 surface ballast particles were manually dyed by discernible colors to serve as tracers in the test.The movements of the surface ballast particles were tracked using the varied pixels displaying tracers in the photos that were intermittently taken during the test in the perpendicular direction.The movement behavior of ballast particles under different combinations of train speeds and axle loads was quantitatively evaluated.The obtained results indicated that the surface ballast particle movements were slight,mainly concentrated near sleepers under low-speed train loads and greatly amplified and extended to the whole surface when the train speed reached 360 km.h-1.Additionally,the development of ballast particle displacement statistically resembled its rotation.Track vibration contributed to the movements of ballast particles,which specifically were driven by vertical acceleration near the track center and horizontal acceleration at the track edge.Furthermore,the development trends of ballast particle movements and track settlement under long-term train loading were similar,and both stabilized at nearly the same time.The track performance,including the vibration characteristics,accumulated settlement,and sleeper support stiffness,was determined to be closely related to the direction and distribution of ballast particle flow,which partly deteriorated under high-speed train loads.

Review of research on high-speed railway subgrade settlement in soft soil area

Construction issues of high-speed rail infrastructures have been increasingly concerned worldwide,of which the subgrade settlement in soft soil area becomes a particularly critical problem.Due to the high compressibility and low permeability of soft soil,the post-construction settlement of the subgrade is extremely difficult to control in these regions,which seriously threatens the operation safety of high-speed trains.In this work,the significant issues of high-speed railway subgrades in soft soil regions are discussed.The theoretical and experimental studies on foundation treatment methods for ballasted and ballastless tracks are reviewed.The settlement evolution and the settlement control effect of different treatment methods are highlighted.Control technologies of subgrade differential settlement are subsequently briefly presented.Settlement calculation algorithms of foundations reinforced by different treatment methods are discussed in detail.The defects of existing prediction methods and the challenges faced in their practical applications are analyzed.Furthermore,the guidance on future improvement in control theories and technologies of subgrade settlement for high-speed railway lines and the corresponding challenges are provided.

Settlement Characteristics of Cement Fly-Ash GravelPile-Plate Composite Foundation of High-Speed Railway

Field tests on settlement characteristics were carried out on the cement fly-ash gravel （CFG） pile-plate composite foundation on Beijing-Xuzhou section of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. The settlements of the piles and the soil between pries were measured and analyzed. The results show that the settlement-time dependency experienced three phases： rapid development phase, stable development phase and stable phase. Therefore, surcharge preloading was necessary to reduce the settlement after construction. The finite element software Plaxis was used to calculate the deformations of the pile top and the soil between piles at the embankment center, as well as the settlements of CFG pile reinforcement area and the underlying stratum under surcharge preloading. The calculation results and the field test results were compared and analyzed. Both the results show that the settlement of the composite foundation mainly occured in underlying stratum. The settlement characteristics of pile-plate composite foundation under high embankment are also concluded.

Experimental Study on Improvement Effects of Completely Weathered Phyllite Using Red Clay and Cement for High-Speed Railway Embankments

Completely weathered phyllite(CWP)has the characteristics of difficult compaction,low shear strength after compaction and large settlement after construction.The traditional improvement method using a single agent of red clay or cement for CWP satisfies the subgrade requirements for ordinary railway,but cannot meet the requirements of immediate strength and long-term post-construction settlement of high-speed railway at the same time.A series of experimental investigations were undertaken for the blended CWP soils,with three additives used.The first additive was red clay,the second was cement and the third was a combination of both red clay and cement at various portions.Results of consolidation test and shear strength test carried out for the treated CWP soils show that:1)The effect of cement on improving the compression modulus of CWP is much better than that of red clay;2)The settlement of an embankment of 10 m high formed by blended soil of CWP with 3%cement can be controlled within 15 mm,while the settlement will be 25.15 mm for the same embankment of blended soil of CWP with 40%red clay;3)The shear strength and ultimate bearing capacity of CWP improved by red clay are much better than those of 5%cement;4)The ultimate bearing capacity of CWP improved by 40%red clay is 3.42 times of that by 3%cement and 2.95 times by 5%cement.Furthermore,the bearing capacity of CWP when improved by red clay can meet railway subgrade requirements immediately after compaction,while cement improved CWP needs a curing time of 1 day or longer.This is an impediment to rapid construction process.The improvement mechanism of red clay is mainly filling effect and grading improvement effect,while the improvement mechanism of cement is mainly hardening reaction,which produces high strength material to cement.It is found that 40%red clay and 3%cement treated CWP,which is considered to be optimum,can meet the subgrade requirements of both immediate bearing capacity and long-term post-construction settlement for the high-speed railway.

Investigation of insulation layer dynamic characteristics for high-speed railway

Dynamic performance of insulation is one of the key parameters during the insulation application for high-speed railway subgrade. This paper conducted laboratory and field tests for the materials and dynamic load, especially for thermal performance, elastic deformation, and accumulated deformation of insulation materials. Experiment results show that mechanical properties of insulation layer structure are stable, which satisfies the requirements of the high speed railway.

Pile foundation of high-speed railway undergoing repeated groundwater reductions

Long-pile groups of railway foundation undergo excessive settlements after groundwater reductions,which may exceed the settlement limit and threaten the safe operation of high-speed trains.However,the effect of groundwater reduction on a long-pile group(greater than 20 m in length)has not been fully understood,especially in respect of repeated reductions.In this study,a centrifuge test was conducted to investigate the responses of pile groups in silty soils subjected to repeated falls in the water table.The behavior of the piles was discussed based both on the test and on 3D numerical analyses.With the derived coef-ficientβfor the axial force evaluation of the pile,the effect of lowering the water table on the railway pile foundation could be seen.Results of the tests and numerical analyses indicated that the water table decline significantly increased the down-drag and axial force of the pile,causing significant settlement.A longer pile presented a larger axial force at the neutral point.Nevertheless,the incremental percentage of the axial force decreased with increasing pile length with the same water table reduction.Because of group effect,the displacement of soil next to the center pile was smaller than that near the corner piles and showed a similar trend as the axial force of the pile.As the water table fell,the static load ratio affecting the progress of pile settlement increased dis-advantageously,possibly inducing excessive pile settlement.A design method for railway pile foundations taking account of lowering groundwater was proposed with an example application,which provided a reference for similar projects.

Model test of the group piles foundation of a high-speed railway bridge in mined-out area

The research on the mechanism of pile-soil-cap-goaf interaction and settlement of high-speed railway bridge located in mined-out area is still relatively rare. By taking the pile group of Guanshandi bridge foundation in Hefei- Fuzhou high-speed railway as the prototype, a model test is carried out. According to the similarity theory, the similar constant is derived and the similar model material is determined. Meanwhile, three types of data including the bearing behavior of piles, and the settlement law, and soil among piles are investigated. It can be found that： the influence of goaf on the bearing capacity of pile is inversely to the loading degree, the larger of loading degree, the smaller impact of goaf on the bearing capacity. There is no negative side friction can been found in pile body and the degree of downward tendency for the barycenter of side friction layout is obvious for piles in goaf. Although the bearing ratio of soil resistance under cap is relatively large, the cap effect is suggested be ignored considering the characteristic of goaf. There is a maximum critical value for the uneven settlement of pile group in goaf, and when the value is reached, the uneven settlement stop growing anymore. In addition, the formula for calculating bearing capacity and settlement of pile group in goaf based on test results, theory analysis and related standard is established.

Swelling characteristics of andesite foundation induced by water immersion and their influence on ballastless track subgrade

To study the mechanical and deformation characteristics of ballastless track subgrade filled with micro-expansion fillers in a water-immersed environment, a physical model of ballastless track subgrade was constructed on a 1:2 scale with expansive andesite fillers. A water immersion test was carried out to model the soaking of the expansive soil foundation caused by rising groundwater. The swelling behaviors of the foundation and their influences upon the mechanics and deformations of the subgrade were analyzed. The lateral swelling pressure of the foundation and the heave of the subgrade obviously increased due to the water immersion, and the values were closely related to the overlying load and lateral restraint. The heave deformation of the double-line ballastless track subgrade showed significant nonuniformity along the lateral direction, causing the track slab to incline with a maximum inclination angle of 1.55×10^-3 deg. The heave of the foundation caused a heave in subgrade, but this transferred heave was significantly attenuated. The attenuation rate of the heave at the midline of the track slab was up to 13.38%. The attenuation characteristic can be fully utilized for the anti-heave deformation measures of railway subgrade in expansive soil areas.