• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05b
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• pp.641-646
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• 2009

Concrete tracks are superior to ballast tracks in the aspect of durability, maintenance and safety. However, deteriorated stiffness of railroad bed and settlement of soft ground induced by trapped or seepage water lead to problems in safety of train operation. In this research, characteristic stiffness of concrete tracks, which is determined from FRACTAL (Flexural-Rigidity Assessment of Concrete Tracks by Antisymmetric Lamb Waves) technique, was employed as an index of track displacement. The characteristic stiffness is defined using Poisson's ratio, moment of inertia and stiffness ratio of subgrade to slab. To verify validity and reliability of the proposed characteristic stiffness, experimental and theoretical researches were performed. Feasibility of the characteristic stiffness based on FRACTAL technique was proved at a real concrete track for Korean high-speed trains. Validity of the FRACTAL technique was also verified by comparing the results of impulse-response tests performed at the same measurement array and the results of SASW tests and DC resistivity survey performed at a shoulder nearby the track.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2016

It is a current trend that the concrete track is applied for high speed railway. In the case of the railway embankment constructed on soft ground, the damage to concrete track which is sensitive to settlement such as distortion and deflection could be caused by very small amount of long term settlement. Pile Supported Embankment method can be considered as the effective method to control the residual settlement of the railway embankment on soft ground. The Geosynthetics is used inside of the embankment to maximize the arching effect transmitting the load of the embankment to the top of the piles. But, PHC piles that are generally used for bridge structures are also applied as the pile supporting the load of embankment concentrated by the effect of the Geosynthetics. That is very low efficiency in respect of pile material. So, in this study, the cast in place concrete pile was selected as the most suitable pile type for supporting the embankment by a case study and the optimum mixing condition of concrete using a by-product of industry was induced by performing the mixing designs and the compressive strength designs. And it is shown that the cast in place pile with the optimum mixing condition using the by-product of industry is 2.8 times more efficient than the PHC pile for the purpose of Pile Supported Embankment by the finite element analysis method.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.1542-1549
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• 2011

The Transitional zone between bridge abutment and earthwork is one of the representative vulnerable zones in railway where differential settlements may take place due to the different supportive stiffness. Although transitional zones are managed with stricter standards than those of the other earthwork zones either in the design and construction stages, it is very difficult to prevent differential settlement perfectly. A three-dimensional numerical analyses were performed by applying train moving load in this study. The analytical model including abutments and earthwork zones was constituted with rail, sleepers, track concrete layer (TCL), hydraulic stabilized base (HSB), reinforced road bed, and road bed using railway and road base structure. The clamp connecting the rail and sleeper were also modeled as the element with spring coefficient. The train wheel is modeled in the actual size and moved on the rail with 300 km/hr speed. The deformation characteristics at each point of the rail and the ground were considered in detail when moving the train wheel. The analysis results were compared with those from the two-dimensional analysis without considering moving load. The research results show that displacement and stress were greater in the three-dimensional analysis than in other analyses, and the three-dimensional analysis with moving load should be performed to evaluate railway performance.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.95-106
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• 2009

This study was intended to identify the effect of the wetting on a long-term compression settlement of the rock/soil mixture used as fill material, depending on compaction and grading conditions. The relatively large settlement happened under the fully-submerged condition, and a repeated settlement was monitored when moisture content increased over and over again like the rainfall infiltration. In case of the materials without fine fractions or compacted in wet condition, the settlement caused by wetting was relatively low. In conclusion, the long-term compression settlement of granular (rock/soil mixture) fill material is more affected by the increase of water content and temperature change (freezing and thawing) than creep.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.13-23
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• 2017

This paper discusses about the reinforcement materials and construction method in order to cope with roadbed settlement in operating railway. In Korea, concrete tracks have been introduced to urban railways, high-speed railways, and general railways, but some recently constructed concrete tracks have experienced roadbed settlements. Reinforcement of the railway roadbed is urgent task for safe operation of railway, but it is difficult to reinforce the roadbed and there are no case history of reinforcing railway roadbed under an operating railroad track. Therefore, in this study, the target performance level for roadbed reinforcement was determined, and infiltration and solidity injection efficiency were investigated for selected reinforcement materials. As a result of the study, it was found that the generally used reinforcement materials and methods for geotechnical works need to be improved for applying in railway roadbed reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.39 no.11
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• pp.23-31
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• 2023

The escalating settlements observed in concrete slab tracks pose a significant challenge in Korea, raising concerns about their adverse impact on the safe operation of high-speed railways and the substantial costs involved in restoration. A primary contributor to these settlements is identified as the utilization of rock materials sourced from tunnel construction, incorporated into the lower subgrade without the requisite soil mixing to achieve an appropriate particle size distribution. This study employs numerical analysis to evaluate the efficacy of partial reinforcement in reducing settlements in rock-filled lower subgrades. Column-shaped reinforcement areas strategically positioned at regular intervals in the lower subgrade induce soil arching in the upper subgrade, leading to a concentration of soil loads on the reinforced areas and consequent settlement reduction. The analysis employs finite element methods to investigate the influence of the size, stiffness, and spacing of the reinforced areas on settlement reduction in the lower subgrade. The numerical results guide the formulation of an optimal design approach, proposing a method to determine the minimum spacing required for reinforcements to effectively limit settlements within acceptable bounds. This research contributes valuable insights into addressing the challenges associated with settlement in concrete slab tracks, offering a basis for informed decision-making in railway infrastructure management.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.17 no.6 s.79
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• pp.673-679
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• 2005

According to continuous welded rails on a bridge, temperature changes bring about the expansion of the bridge deck,adding axial forces on the track. Moreover, the ballast on the bridge deck expansion joint is moved due to the bridge deck. The longer the bridge deck is, the greater the influence will be, loosening the ballast, causing track irregularities, and deteriorating passenger comfort. Considering the structure of the bridge itself and tolerance for track irregularities caused by the loosened ballast on the bridge, the maximum length of the deck should be less than 80 m, which is the same as the standard of French railways. In this study, the interaction between the expansion related to the bridge length and the irregularity in the longitudinal level, referring to measurements and maintenance work performed in high-speed railways, was analyzed. This research shows that the installation of a sliding plate or a vertical ballast stopper is not a good option, since it is difficult. On the other hand, the installation of a ZLR fastener or gluing is easy, but its influence is insignificant. In conclusion, switch tie tamping or manual tamping is more effective than other methods of what?

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.251-259
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• 2014

The transition zone between an earthwork and a bridge effect to the vehicle's running stability because support stiffness of the roadbed is suddenly changed. The design criteria for the transition structure on ballast track were not particular in the past. However with the introduction of concrete track is introduced, it requires there is a higher performance level required because of maintenance and running stability. In this present paper, a transition structure reinforced with geosynthetics is suggested to improve the performance of existing bridge-earthwork transition structures. The suggested transition structure, in which there is reinforcing of the approach block using high-tension geosynthetics, has a structure similar to that of earth reinforced abutments. The utilized backfill materials are cement treated soil and gravel. These materials are used to reduce water intrusion into the approach block and to increase the recycling of surplus earth materials. An experiment was performed under the same conditions in order to allow a comparison of this new structure with the existing transition structure. Evaluation items are elastic displacement, cumulative settlement, and earth pressure. As for the results of the real-scale accelerated testing, the suggested transition structure has excellent performance for the reduction of earth pressure and settlement. Above all, it has high resistance the variation of the water content.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.278-285
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• 2013

The suppression of residual settlement is required on earthwork sections as concrete track is introduced. Use of pile-slab structure is one of the settlement restraining methods applied on soft ground. The slab distributes the upper embankment load and piles transfer the load from the slab to the stiff ground. While this method is very effective in terms of load transfer, it has not yet been established for dealing with the vibration transfer effects and interaction characteristics between a structure and the ground. It is possible that vibration caused by a moving train load is propagated in the upper embankment, because the slab acts as a reflection layer and waves are multi-reflected. In this present paper, wave propagation generated by a moving train load is evaluated in the time and frequency domains to consider a roadbed structure using an artificial impact load and field measured train load. The results confirmed the wave reflection effect on the pile-slab structure, if the embankment height is sufficient, vibration propagation can be stably restrained, whereas if the height is not sufficient, the vibration amplitude is increased.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.91-102
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• 2023

To study the evaluation standard and control limit of mortar filling layer void length, in this paper, the train sub-model was developed by MATLAB and the track-bridge sub-model considering the mortar filling layer void was established by ANSYS. The two sub-models were assembled into a train-track-bridge coupling dynamic model through the wheel-rail contact relationship, and the validity was corroborated by the coupling dynamic model with the literature model. Considering the randomness of fastening stiffness, mortar elastic modulus, length of mortar filling layer void, and pier settlement, the test points were designed by the Box-Behnken method based on Design-Expert software. The coupled dynamic model was calculated, and the support vector regression (SVR) nonlinear mapping model of the wheel-rail system was established. The learning, prediction, and verification were carried out. Finally, the reliable probability of the amplification coefficient distribution of the response index of the train and structure in different ranges was obtained based on the SVR nonlinear mapping model and Latin hypercube sampling method. The limit of the length of the mortar filling layer void was, thus, obtained. The results show that the SVR nonlinear mapping model developed in this paper has a high fitting accuracy of 0.993, and the computational efficiency is significantly improved by 99.86%. It can be used to calculate the dynamic response of the wheel-rail system. The length of the mortar filling layer void significantly affects the wheel-rail vertical force, wheel weight load reduction ratio, rail vertical displacement, and track plate vertical displacement. The dynamic response of the track structure has a more significant effect on the limit value of the length of the mortar filling layer void than the dynamic response of the vehicle, and the rail vertical displacement is the most obvious. At 250 km/h - 350 km/h train running speed, the limit values of grade I, II, and III of the lengths of the mortar filling layer void are 3.932 m, 4.337 m, and 4.766 m, respectively. The results can provide some reference for the long-term service performance reliability of the ballastless track-bridge system of HRS.