University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Under ballast mats for railway infrastructure–a North American approach to component characterization

de Oliveira Lima, Arthur

Content Files
DEOLIVEIRALIMA-THESIS-2017.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/99415

Description

Title
Under ballast mats for railway infrastructure–a North American approach to component characterization
Author(s)
de Oliveira Lima, Arthur
Issue Date
2017-12-13
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
  • Edwards, John Riley
  • Tutumluer, Erol
Committee Member(s)
Dersch, Marcus Scott
Department of Study
Civil & Environmental Eng
Discipline
Civil Engineering
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2018-03-13T15:49:13Z
Keyword(s)
  • Railway infrastructure
  • Under ballast mats
Abstract
Railroads continually look for ways to extend the life of their track infrastructure and its components given poor track performance can lead to reduced transportation efficiencies. As such, under ballast mat (UBM) applications have seen growth in the North American (N.A.) freight railroad transportation market. However, current standard procedures quantifying the UBM’s properties and performance are provided solely by the German DIN 45673 standard tailored to European Mainline freight and passenger service. This lack of domestic testing procedures tailored to N.A. heavy haul freight lines provides challenges in implementing representative procedures to test materials where the UBMs will be exposed to higher axle loads. To understand how changes to the current procedures may affect the performance of UBM components, laboratory experiments were developed and conducted. Loading magnitudes, loading procedures, support conditions and testing setups were varied during multiple experiments. Additionally, an assessment of the capability of UBMs to increase the allowed track structure deflection under loading (i.e. reduce track stiffness) was also conducted. Results steaming from this work are ultimately intended to provide support to the development of representative characterization procedures and recommended practices for UBMs intended for use in the N.A. market.
Graduation Semester
2017-12
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99415
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2017 Arthur de Oliveira Lima

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