• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.334-341
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• 2008

Ballast track needs maintenance works because it is supported by the compressible trackbed and subgrade layers. Maintenance works are essential to secure riding comfort and extend the life cycle of it. The necessities of maintenance works are determined from track irregularities measured by EM120. Track irregularities is the results of the track deformation. Therefore, it is natural to evaluate the cause of it. This paper focuses on the points the track irregularities come from the trackbed and the subgrade. Nondestructive techniques, such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Portable Falling Weight Deflectometer (PFWD) are applied to evaluate the trackbed conditions, ballast layer thickness and vertical track stiffness, in the test section 500m long of Gyungbu line. The trackbed investigation results are compared with the track irregularities measured by EM120 and maintenance works. Conclusively, it was found that some maintenance works were unnecessary on the test section.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.537-542
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• 2023

Recently, deformation of operating railway structures has occurred due to adjacent excavation works such as new structures and utility tunnel expansion concentrated around downtown areas. However, most of them are focused on structural review, repair and reinforcement of structures. A review of the Track is insufficient. In particular, in the case of the gravel track on the earthwork subgrade, the subgrade and the ballast are not solidified. A slight level of deformation can cause ballast relaxation. Sleeper support conditions may lead to unstable conditions. Sufficient safety must be ensured. In addition, it is a track type with a high risk of train derailment due to unstable support conditions. In this study, the correlation between the deformation characteristics of gravel tracks and track support performance according to subgrade deformation is experimentally and analytically verified. In addition, an evaluation technique that can evaluate the condition of the gravel track and the track support stiffness is presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.248-255
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• 2011

Impact factor of concrete and ballast track which has been used in Korea railway was applied to equation (1+0.513V/100) from AREA. As the use of this equation, overcapacity of track design might be occurred. Therefore, this study compared impact of ballast track (well, bad) and concrete track (sleeper embeded system, rail floating and sleeper floating) by field test to analyzing dynamic effect of track structure's characterstic and wheel load on service line. In addition, it suggested a method to generate reasonable impact factor on each track type.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

Ballasted track has been widely used due to its flexibility. However, the plastic deformation of ballasted track causes the evolution of track geometrical errors, and hence it requires continuous maintenance; increase in number of trains, weight, and speed expedites maintenance frequency and cost as well. Ballast stiffness is well-known as an indicator of design and maintenance. In this regard, this paper aims to suggest the method to measure ballast track stiffness using light-weight deflectometer (LWD) and thus verify its applicability as a maintenance measure. Preliminary field tests determined simple field testing protocol to measure track stiffness. The apparent ballast stiffness by LWD shows good corelation with TQI (Track Quality Index) and maintenance length. That is, as average of apparent stiffness increase, TQI and tamping length decrease exponentially. Therefore, apparent stiffness can be used as an index for ballast condition assessment.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.239-244
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• 2022

In this study, the key parameters affecting the deterioration of each track type were derived based on field inspections and laboratory tests. The existing track deterioration model was limited to the ballasted tracks, and the deterioration evaluation of concrete tracks was insufficient. In this study, the laboratory test was performed to evaluate the performance and condition of track components to derive the deterioration factors reflecting the characteristics of various track structures. In addition, through analysis of track maintenance history data, parameters affecting track deterioration and maintenance were derived. The key parameters for presenting a track deterioration model based on the track performance of ballasted and concrete tracks through field inspection, track maintenance history data analysis, and performance test of track components using on-site specimens were identified as track support stiffness, Ballast gravel, track settlement and Resilience pad were presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.262-270
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• 2011

Track support stiffness which affected track maintenance and riding comfort had a big effect on the track and train. Also, track support stiffness of the track design which was based on theory differs from track support stiffness of the track generated on the field. Track support stiffness was generated by several factors such as dynamic wheel loads, vertical displacement of track, and stress at rail bottom on the field test. With the results of the field test was compared with theoretical value. This paper analyzed that track support stiffness of ballast depended on condition of ballast, and support stiffness of concrete track also depended on the characteristic of track structures such as, normal elastic fastening system, rail floating system and sleeper floating system. However, on the ballast and concrete track, the designed track support stiffness was underestimated less than the measured track support stiffness. When the track condition was estimated on service line, it would not consider the track condition on the field. Therefore, this study proposed the various track type and the range of track support stiffness based on the experimental test.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.13-21
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• 2017

Ballasted track has been used as track system for more than 100 years. Ballasted track has advantages of low construction cost, flexible maintenance, low noise and vibration, and so on. However, ballasted track leads to continuous settlement which causes maintenance. Recently, increase in speed, traffic volume, and weight of train requires more frequent maintenance. Fouling, well-known phenomenon of accumulation of fine materials due to intrusion of subgrade and breakage of ballast materials, expedites the settlement (i.e., irregular settlement) of track. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be one of non-destructive tools that can evaluate fouling level of ballast. In this paper, a gain function based on the attenuation characteristics of ballast material is suggested in conjunction with Hilbert transform. Lab box tests and full-scale tests indicate that the suggested method reasonably classifies clean, fouled layers, and subgrade. However, additional study to eliminate effect of sleeper and to include the scattering features of the electromagnetic wave in ballast voids should be required in order to enhance the accuracy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2009

Recently, concrete track is replacing ballast track for efficient and economic maintenance of track. It considerably offer less maintenance, a longer service life and reduced life-cycle costs. With the aim of achieving high-quality track construction work, of developing tools for quality assurance in new construction and for later technical inspection of material condition, a quality strategy has to be developed. For these purpose, NDT which is using the seismic wave has carried out in situ studies in the test construction section. The used NDT are SASW test, impact echo test and continuous impact echo test. The test is performed 5,353 times on 49 pre-cast concrete track panels to verify the stiffness structure and grouting efficiency of the track structure. To conclude, because of the non-homogeneous characteristic of concrete material. it is restricted to apply the elastic wave test at some aspect. However it is possible to acquisite a sufficient reliability about structural stiffness and grouting efficiency of concrete track.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.8516-8524
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• 2015

Track irregularities can be evaluated not only directly by track inspection but also indirectly by measurement of carbody accelerations and many researches are being conducted. Carbody accelerations were measured on the Kyeongbu high speed railway and France high speed line to investigate the situation of the track maintenance at Korea high speed line by using indirect method. Digital signal processing for the measured acceleration data were conducted according to UIC518 code. Since the vehicle speed affects the car body acceleration, the lateral and vertical acceleration of the car body were classified according to the vehicle speed and the distribution characteristics of these acceleration were investigated and evaluated by UIC518 criteria. Finally, the running behavior of KTX on Korea high speed railway were compared with that on France. Distribution characteristics of these acceleration were evaluated and discussed in terms of the track maintenance in Korea high speed line.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.702-709
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• 2018

A quick-hardened concrete track was developed to improve the aged ballasted track to a concrete track, and applied to earthworks and tunnels of main and urban railways. Rebars for reinforcement are not generally applied to prestressed concrete sleepers. On the other hand, many cracked sleepers have been observed in railroad sites. A wide sleeper, which is one of the main components of quick-hardened concrete track, should be structurally safe and crack-resistant in a ballasted and concrete track to avoid this problem. In particular, a wide sleeper manufactured by a post-tension method must have reinforcing bars applied to the rail-seat section. In this paper, static tests, dynamic tests, and fatigue tests were carried out to compare the flexural strength and crack resistance performance of a wide sleeper with and without reinforcing bars for a quick-hardened concrete track. As a result of the test, if some reinforcing bars are applied appropriately to the rail-seat section of a wide sleeper, it will be possible to prevent the occurrence of cracks, delay the expansion of the crack width, and the flexural fracture.