• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.64-75
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• 2017

The role of a track subgrade is to provide bearing capacity and distribute load transferred to lower foundation soils. Track subgrade soils are usually compacted by heavy mechanical machines in the field, such that sometimes they are attributed to progressive residual settlement during the service after construction completion of the railway track. The progressive residual settlement generated in the upper part of a track subgrade is mostly non-recoverable plastic deformation, which causes unstable conditions such as track irregularity. Nonetheless, up to now no design code for allowable residual settlement of subgrade in a railway trackbed has been proposed based on mechanical testing, such as repetitive triaxial testing. At this time, to check the DOC or stiffness of the soil, field test criteria for compacted track subgrade are composed of data from RPBT and field compaction testing. However, the field test criteria do not provide critical design values obtained from mechanical test results that can offer correct information about allowable permanent deformation. In this study, a test procedure is proposed for permanent deformation of compacted subgrade soil that is used usually in railway trackbed in the laboratory using repetitive triaxial testing. To develop the test procedure, an FEA was performed to obtain the shear stress ratio (${\tau}/{\tau}_f$) and the confining stress (${\sigma}_3$) on the top of the subgrade. Comprehensive repetitive triaxial tests were performed using the proposed test procedure on several field subgrade soils obtained in construction sites of railway trackbeds. A permanent deformation model was proposed using the test results for the railway track.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 2004

Conventional railroad roadbeds constructed with soils can easily deteriorate with time due to the increase of repeated traffic loading, increase of train speed, built-up of ground water on the roadbed and decrease of permeability in the roadbed layer, etc. In this study, performance of reinforced railroad roadbeds with the crushed stones was investigated through the real scale roadbed tests and numerical analysis. It was found that the reinforced roadbed with crushed stone had less elastic and plastic vertical displacement(settlement) than general soil roadbed regardless of the number of loading cycles. It was also found through the actual testing that for the roadbed with the same thickness, the displacement of reinforced roadbed decreases with the increase of subgrade reaction modulus. The settlement of reinforced roadbed with the same subgrade reaction modulus also decreases with the increase of thickness of the reinforced roadbed. However, the subgrade reaction modulus is a more important factor to the total plastic displacement of the track than the thickness of the crushed stone roadbed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.204-212
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• 2016

The soils used as trackbed in Korea are selected using USCS utilizing basic soil properties such as Grain Size Distribution(GSD), % passing of #200 sieve ($P_{200}$), % passing of #4 sieve ($P_4$), Coefficient of uniformity ($C_u$), and Coefficient of curvature ($C_c$). Degree of compaction of the soils adapted in the code by KR should be evaluated by maximum dry density (${\gamma}_{d-max}$) and deformation modulus $E_{v2}$. The most important influencing factor that is critical to stability and deformation of the compacted soils used as trackbed is stiffness. Thus, it is necessary to construct a correlation between the modulus and the basic soil properties of trackbed soil in order to redefine a new soil classification system adaptable only to railway construction. To construct the relationship, basic soil test data is collected as a database, including GSD, maximum dry unit weight (${\gamma}_{d-max}$), OMC, $P_{200}$, $P_4$, $C_u$, $C_c$, etc.; deformation modulus $E_{v2}$ and $E_{vd}$ are obtained independently by performing a Repeated Plated Bearing Test (RPBT) and Light Weight Deflectometer Test (LWDT) for ten different railway construction sites. A linear regression analysis is performed using SPSS to obtain the relationship between the basic soil properties and the deformation modulus $E_{v2}$ and $E_v$. Based on the constructed relationship and the various obtained mechanical test data, a new soil classification system will be proposed later as a guideline for the design and construction of trackbed foundation in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.127-138
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• 2015

It is important to evaluate the stiffness characteristics of compacted subgrade soil under track that is loaded dynamically. Using a mid-size Resonant Column test apparatus, normalized shear modulus and shear modulus variation with changing of confining pressure were investigated with change of degree of saturation (DOS). From an analysis of the test results, it was verified that the maximum shear modulus decreased with increases of DOS. However, normalized shear modulus increased with increases of DOS. Using the test results, a relation of G~${\gamma}$~DOS can be constructed and characterized. In the future, by performing tests with soils used as trackbed broadly in the field, a prediction model for DOS~G~${\gamma}$ can be proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.386-393
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• 2013

In this study, the so-called repeated plate load bearing test (RPBT) used to get $E_{v2}$ values in order to check the degree of compaction of subgrade, and to get design parameters for determining the thickness of the trackbed foundation, is investigated. The test procedure of the RPBT method is scrutinized in detail. $E_{v2}$ values obtained from the field were verified in order to check the reliability of the test data. The $E_{v2}$ values obtained from high-speed rail construction sites were compared to converted modulus values obtained from resonant column (RC) test results. For these tests, medium-size samples composed of the same soils from the field were used after analyzing stress and strain levels existing in the soil below the repeated loading plates. Finite element analyses, using the PLAXIS and ABAQUS programs, were performed in order to investigate the impact of the strain influence coefficient. This was done by getting newly computed $I_z$ to get the precise strain level predicted on the subgrade surface in the full track structure; under wheel loading. It was verified that it is necessary to use precise loading steps to construct nonlinear load-settlement curves from RPBT in order to get correct $E_{v2}$ values at the proper strain levels.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2015

LWDT was developed for use as an alternative technique to measure the stiffness of trackbed soils. In this study, numerical and theoretical analyses of LWDT's acting mechanism were performed. The effectiveness of the adapted elastic formula used for calculation of the dynamic modulus, Evd, was investigated theoretically and also numerically by running ABAQUS analysis. The minimum thickness of the upper layer is proposed based on the analysis. Correction factors for the formula of elastic modulus are also proposed in this study. In the future, following field test results and laboratory mechanical tests such as the resonant column test, a guideline for the use of LWDT as a standard test protocol in track construction sites, as a measuring tool for the degree of compaction and/or stiffness and dynamic modulus, will be proposed based on this analysis.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.1506-1512
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• 2010

In this study, model tests were performed to investigate the settlement characteristics of the rock/soil mixture subgrade with the many portion of mudstone due to the cyclic train loading in high-speed railway. Specially, from the tests varying initial degree of saturation, effects of increment of the degree of saturation in the subgrade due to rainfall or elevation of ground water table under cyclic train loading on the deformation characteristics were analyzed. From the results, in the low degree of saturation, settlement converged to some value. However, in the condition of degree of saturation larger than some value, settlement rapidly increased. Therefore, it was found that it is important to maintain the degree of saturation of subgrade below the specific level to prevent the settlement of subgrade.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.13-21
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• 2011

In seasonal frozen areas with climatic features, which have a temperature difference in the winter and thawing season, changes of mechanical properties of the soil in the zone could be seen between the freezing and thawing surface. In particular, in soil with many fine particles, a softening of the roadbed usually occurs from frost and thawing actions. The lower bearing capacity is a rapidly progressive the softening of roadbed, and occurred a mud-pumping by repeated loading. In this study, the three kind of sandy soil with contents of fine particles were conducted by directly shear box test with the number of cyclic in freeze-thawing and the water content of soil. Subsequently, the relationship between the shear strength and freeze-thaw cycling time was obtained. The shear strength was decreased with the increase of the freeze-thaw cycling time. A shear stress deterioration of the soil with power function modal is proposal.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.9 no.3 s.34
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• pp.298-304
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• 2006

An active application of concrete track is being expected for the future constructions of Korean railroad. For the successful concrete track construction and design in earthwork areas, the roadbed behavior should be reasonably estimated using the proper analysis method. In this paper, behaviors of concrete track on the reinforced roadbed constructed with the standard stiffness and depth were estimated thorough numerical analyses and field measurements. A three dimensional finite difference method was employed to model the concrete tracks and subground. The settlement and vertical pressures caused by train load were estimated by the numerical method and compared with the field measurement results. The bearing characteristics of roadbed were presented and the proper method for the analysis of concrete track was proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.433-441
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• 2011

It is a fact that the straightening of track alignment is one of the undoubted ways to improve the train speed on conventional lines, while that requires huge investment resources. Therefore, the operation of a tilting train as well as the minimum improvement of track is suggested as an effective and economical alternative way for the speed-up of conventional lines. Since a driving mechanism of tilting train is different from those of existing trains, in order to make sure its operation safety and stability on conventional line, the performance of track and roadbed must be preferentially evaluated on the conventional line. Furthermore, it is necessary to estimate the tilting-train-induced roadbed response in detail since the roadbed settlement can lead to the track deformation and even derailment. In this research, the patterns of wheel load and lateral force were monitored and analyzed through the field tests, and the derailment coefficient and degree of wheel off-loading were calculated in order to evaluate the tilting train running safety depending on the running speeds (120km~180km) on the conventional line. Moreover, roadbed pressure, settlement and acceleration were also observed as tilting-train-induced roadbed responses in order to estimate the roadbed stability depending on the running speeds. Consequently, the measured derailment coefficient and degree of wheel off-loading were satisfied with their own required limits, and all of the roadbed responses were less than those of existing high-speed train (KTX) over an entire running speed range considered in this study. As a result of this study, the tilting train which will be operated in combination with existing trains is expected to give no adverse impact on the conventional line even with its improved running speed.