Application of Li and Selig railway formation design method to expansive soil

Highly expansive soils in floodplains were encountered extensively along the Narrabri to North Star rail section of the Inland Rail Project. Li and Selig’s formation design method with two criteria for design criteria was adopted. The first criterion check applied against allowable deviator stresses, whereas the second criterion is a calculation of cumulative plastic settlement over many cycles related to the number of trains against project settlements acceptance limits. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was carried out to model applied deviatoric stresses with the Mohr-Coulomb plasticity model in Plaxis 3D. Allowable deviator stresses were also adopted from a design undrained shear strength of subgrade which is from laboratory and field testings. Changes in subgrade moisture content and degree of saturation due to flooding and infiltration were assessed using Seep/W. A relationship was established between the change in undrained shear strength and variation in moisture content. In the calculation of cumulative plastic deformation, project-specific design parameters a, b and m were also obtained from one cyclic triaxial testing and compared with results in Li and Selig’s papers.

• Record URL:
  https://australiangeomechanics.org/downloads/
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780994626103
• Authors:
  • Blanchet, V
  • Tun, Y W
  • Yang, L
  • Lo, E
• Conference:
  • Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics, 13th, 2019, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• Publication Date: 2019-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 973-8
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 13th Australia New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics Perth, Western Australia, 1-3 April, 2019

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Moisture content; Railroad rails; Shear strength; Soil mechanics; Subgrade (Pavements)
• Geographic Terms: New South Wales
• ATRI Terms: Load damage relationship; Moisture content; Railway track; Shear strength; Soil mechanics; Subgrade
• Subject Areas: Geotechnology;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01714795
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB Group Limited
• ISBN: 9780994626103
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 26 2019 11:51AM