Characterization of Recycled Materials for a High-Performance Sustainable Railway Ballast Design

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates is aiming to build an extensive national railway system (Etihad Rail) that will connect the country's major economic, industrial, and residential centers. Although the railway offers various advantages over roadways, it also has significant disadvantages, such as high maintenance costs owing to track deterioration, which limit its use. The major goal of SUPERTRACK is to develop new high-performance, long-lasting ballast to extend the track's life and reduce maintenance costs. Laboratory experiments were conducted on locally available natural and recycled materials in the United Arab Emirates to study the behavior subjected to static and dynamic loads. Limestone, crushed concrete, gabbro and slag are tested using triaxial shear device under compression and different amplitudes of dynamic loading. Laboratory experiments are simulated with constitutive models for finite element modeling.

Date of Award	Dec 2022
Original language	American English