Impact performance of ballast by incorporating waste tire-derived aggregates

摘要

Tire-derived Aggregate (TDA), as a recycled material, has shown great potentials in enhancing the mechanical and durability behaviors of railway ballast. In addition, economic and environmental advan-tages can be achieved by the application of TDAs. In railway engineering, at track transition zones or loca-tions where track irregularities exist, railway ballast bears extremely high impact loads, which endanger the driving safety and comfort. This paper provides insights into the impact behaviors of railway ballast with various content of TDA using the discrete element method (DEM). TDAs were added in the ballast with four different volume contents (0%, 5%, 10% and 100%). Wave propagation, impact resistance and energy evolution were quantitively investigated. Results showed that TDAs significantly retard the com-pression wave propagation. TDAs could reduce the impact stress and extend the contact duration between the hammer and ballast. Moreover, the reaction stress of the bottom boundary was also reduced due to the inclusion of TDAs.(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.