Railroad Ballast Particle Breakage with Unique Laboratory Test Method

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the results in the research topic of the railway ballast particles’ breakage test with unique laboratory test. The most railway lines in the world have so called traditional superstructure (ballasted tracks). In the past few years there were a lot of railway rehabilitation projects in Hungary, as well as abroad. Nowadays cannot be expected that there is enough quantity of railway ballast in adequate quality, because of the modifications and restrictions in the related regulations in Hungary since 2010. In Hungary there are only a few quarries which are able to ensure adequate railway ballast material for construction and maintenance projects for speed values between 120 and 160 km/h. This may cause supply and quality risk in production of railway ballast. The authors’ research’s main goal is to be able to simulate the stress-strain effect of ballast particles in real and objective way in laboratory conditions as well as in discrete element modelling.