Cyclic Behaviors of Railroad Ballast within the Parallel Gradation Scaling Framework
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 7
Abstract
Because of the large grainsizes typical of railroad ballast, large triaxial samples are required to assess the reactions of these materials. The parallel gradation modeling technique was originally developed by John Lowe in 1964 to allow assessment of large grain-size geomaterial properties in smaller, more typical testing facilities. Emphasis has focused on monotonic loading, in which the material is progressively loaded to failure. Cyclic testing of this model has been absent. This paper presents an investigation of the possibility of using the parallel gradation modeling technique in a cyclic triaxial testing framework. Three separate gradations of ballast material were used in this research. The largest gradation contains a top particle size of 63.5 mm (2.5 in.) and is marketed as #3 modified railroad ballast. The second two gradations contained a top size of 38 mm (1.5 in.) and 19 mm (.), respectively. Up to 10,000 load cycles were applied for each test. Resilient modulus, permanent axial, volumetric strain, and particle shape were determined from the test results. It is concluded that applying parallel gradation technique to cyclic behavior characterization should be cautious. If particle shape is not consistent throughout the particle sizes used in the parallel gradation model, the model is invalid in the cyclic triaxial framework.
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Acknowledgments
This work would not have been possible without the support of Iron Mountain Trap Rock and Fred Webber Inc. who donated the materials used in this research. Additionally, Josh McNiff of Missouri S&T was responsible for the assembly of Matlab code used to assess shape parameters in this study. Dr. Norbert Mearz of Missouri S&T is responsible for developing and maintaining the camera equipment used in photographing particles for the shape analysis. Also from Missouri S&T, Steve Gable was instrumental in developing and building the triaxial device used in this research.
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© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Feb 13, 2011
Accepted: Dec 19, 2011
Published online: Dec 23, 2011
Published in print: Jul 1, 2012
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