Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Geotextiles and Geomembranes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geotexmem

Field assessment of railway ballast degradation and mitigation using

geotextile
Raghvendra Pratap Singha,b,c, Sanjay Nimbalkard, Saurabh Singhe, Deepankar Choudhuryf,g,∗
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
b
National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited, Mumbai, 400013, India
c
Central Railway, Chalisgaon, 424101, India
d
School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, NSW 2007 Australia
e
North Central Railway, Firozabad, 283203, India
f
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India
g
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), CSIR-HRDC Campus, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Rail tracks continue to deform due to degradation of ballast under the application of heavy train traffic. The
Geosynthetics resulting track deformations often lead to drainage impairment as well as loss of resiliency. For track replen-
Ballast ishment, deep screening of ballast is usually adopted by Indian Railway (IR) either after 10 years or passage of
Fouling 500 MGT traffic, whichever is earlier. To study the effectiveness of geotextile on track stability and assess
Degradation
possible reductions in maintenance costs, a layer of woven geotextile was installed at the ballast-subgrade in-
Deep screening
terface in Bhusawal-Akola central railway section of IR which is the present study area. The results show that the
Railway track
amount of degradation and fouling are different in UP and DN tracks due to inherent variation in traffic char-
acteristics. This study also shows that the placement of geotextile in the track has led to prolonged maintenance
cycle with favorable implications on cost and track shutdown periods. The findings of the present case study
results will be useful for IR to reduce the ballast procurement and reuse of discarded material during deep
screening in future.

1. Introduction Experimental and numerical studies for determining the ballast

Ballast is a key component of railway track substructure which pro-
vides better resiliency, rapid drainage, efficient load transfer to subgrade
while maintaining the longitudinal and vertical track alignment.
Depending on the traffic characteristics, design speed and availability of
natural aggregates, different gradation of ballast has been specified across
the globe [European Standard (EN 13450,2002), Canadian National
Railways Specification (CN 12–20C, 2003), American Railway En-
gineering Maintenance of Way-Association (AREMA, 2010), Australian
Standard (AS 2758.7, 2015), Indian Railways Specification (RDSO,
2016)]. These specifications recommend the use of angular ballast ag-
gregates due to the mobilization of their frictional interlock during
shearing. However, these angular projections break either in shear or in
compression under the application of train loading. In general, the par-
ticle breakage is primarily originated from the grinding of small-scale
asperities, breakage of angular projections and splitting of particles into
approximately equal parts (Lee and Kennedy, 1975).
degradation under static and cyclic loading has been carried out by
many researchers. It is reported that the ballast layer is deformed, de-
graded thus reducing its thickness under the influence of cyclic loads.
This degradation is more pronounced during the initial stage of cyclic
loading, with tendency to increase at a diminishing rate after a few
million cycles (Lade et al., 1996; Raymond, 2000; Suiker et al., 2005;
Indraratna et al., 2014; Choudhury et al., 2008; Kennedy et al., 2012;
Harkness et al., 2016; Kashani et al., 2017; Sayeed and Shahin, 2018;
Imjai et al., 2019). Various methods have been proposed in the past to
quantify the ballast degradation in terms of breakage index (Lee and
Farhoomand, 1967, Marsal, 1967; Hardin, 1985, Einav, 2007, among
others).
The ballast becomes fouled due to (i) breakage of ballast during
handling, tamping, chemical disintegration, thermal stresses in deserts,
deformation imparted from traffic, (ii) infiltration from top surface, (iii)
infiltration from underlying granular material and (iv) infiltration due
to mud pumping from soft subgrade (Selig and Water, 1994). Due to the

Corresponding author. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India.
∗

E-mail addresses: rpsinghlucknow@gmail.com (R.P. Singh), Sanjay.Nimbalkar@uts.edu.au (S. Nimbalkar), saurabh.sgm@gmail.com (S. Singh),
dc@civil.iitb.ac.in, dchoudhury@iitb.ac.in (D. Choudhury).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2019.11.013

0266-1144/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Raghvendra Pratap Singh, et al., Geotextiles and Geomembranes, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2019.11.013
R.P. Singh, et al.
Abbreviations
Cm Number of load cycles/MGT
At Axle load in tons
Na Number of axles/load cycles
FI Fouling Index
P4.75 Percentage finer than 4.75 mm
P0.075 Percentage finer than 0.075 mm
ΔWk Difference in percentage weight retained
Wkj Percentage weight retained before the test
Wkf Percentage weight retained after the test
Br Relative breakage
Bt Total breakage
fouling, the resiliency and drainage capacity of track ballast reduces
which in turn results in poor riding quality, passenger discomfort and
potential derailment of trains. When ballast becomes severely fouled,
deep screening operation is carried out. During this operation, the en-
tire ballast is screened, finer particles are discarded, good quality ag-
gregates are put back in the track and deficiency is recouped by adding
freshly quarried ballast in the track (Selig and Water, 1994). The Indian
railway network is third-largest networks in the world with broad-
gauge track network encompassing four extreme points of the country
with a total length of 101,778 km. IR network conveys freight and
passenger trains with estimated annual traffic up to 115 MGT. The
ballast renewal is recommended either after every 10 years or passage
of 500 MGT traffic in order to maintain the resiliency and drainage
(IRPWM, 2004). Before the 1980s the IR network was screened
manually and at present, about 74% of the total deep screening carrying
out is with the help of a ballast cleaning machine (BCM). Fig. 1, shows
the manual and BCM screening carried out over (IR) in last 6 years.
Fig. 2 shows that annual procurement of ballast is around 8.0 million
cubic meters and expenditure associated with it is about 140 M USD,
the detailed description of manual and BCM screening is given in later
section. Geotextiles have been used as railway formation rehabilitation
measures since the 1970s (Raymond, 1999). Many field trials and la-
boratory testing of geosynthetics (including geotextile, geogrid, geo-
composite) pertaining to their applications in railways and highways
have been reported (Raymond, 2002; Indraratna et al., 2010;
Indraratna and Nimbalkar, 2013; Nimbalkar and Indraratna, 2016;
Chawla and Shahu, 2016; Esmaeili et al., 2017, 2019; Izadi et al., 2018;
Kermani et al., 2018; Placido et al., 2018; Chawla et al., 2019; Li et al.,
2019; Sweta and Hussaini, 2019). Ghosal and Som (1993) have sug-
gested the potential application and cost-benefit of geotextile for Indian
construction projects. To assess the efficacy of geotextile in ballast de-
gradation and fouling, during the year 2005–2012, IR carried out trials
at about 20 different locations. In these trials, a layer of woven geo-
textile at the ballast-subgrade interface was placed while deep
screening of ballast by BCM.
This paper aims to: (i) analyze the ballast degradation and fouling
with a number of load cycles, (ii) analyze the efficacy of woven geo-
textile laid with respect to, breakage and fouling and (iii) explore
measures to optimize the expenditure on ballast and reuse of discarded
material during screening in construction projects.
2. Background
In Indian railways, 15 different types of locomotives, passenger
trains in a different combination of 14 types of rolling stock with axle
loads varying between 10 tons and 16 tons and freight trains with 18
different types of rolling stock with axle loads varying from 5 tons to 23
tons operates on the same track. This causes huge variation in traffic
density and its characteristics. About 99% of the total Indian Rail net-
work is utilized for mixed passenger and freight conveyance while
2
Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Bp Breakage potential
IRPWM Indian Railway Permanent Way Manual
AREMA American Railway Engineering Maintenance of Way-
Association
AS Australian Standard
BCM Ballast Cleaning Machine
CN Canadian National Railways Specification
EN European Standard
IRICEN Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering
IRS Indian Railways Specification
PSC Pre-stressed Concrete Sleeper
SDU Soil Disposal Unit
TMS Track Management System
dedicating remaining 1% to freight corridors only.
In 1866, the single-track section between Bhusawal and Akola in the
state of Maharashtra, India was commissioned. It's widening to include
the double-track section was completed in 1922, with older track de-
signated as DN track and vice versa. This section is chosen for present
study due to following two reasons; both UP (UP) and Down (DN)
tracks had different traffic characteristics and secondly among 20 dif-
ferent locations where trials with woven geotextile were carried out,
this section had the longest trail length of about 30 km. It is noted that
both UP and DN track of this section cater the need of regular passenger
traffic with around 20 passenger trains running per day, freight traffic
comprises of about12 fully-loaded freight trains (50 wagons loaded
with coal) run on UP track whereas on DN track same freight trains runs
empty after unloading the coal. The axle loads of fully-loaded and
empty freight trains are 20.5 tons and 5.8 tons respectively. It is ob-
vious that UP track showed signs of fouling due to the spilling of coal
from the top compared to its counterpart (i.e. DN track).
3. Site description and sampling
Bhusawal – Akola rail section is located in Central India as shown in
Fig. 3(a). In this section, the track superstructure consisted of pre-
stressed concrete sleeper (PSC-6), 60 kg/m rail with the ultimate tensile
strength of 90 kg/mm2 and elastic fastenings systems (rail pad, metal
liners and rail clips) (IRPWM, 2004). In 2012, the track management
system (TMS) was introduced to retain digital records of all track re-
lated activities. In the area under study, the last two deep screening
operations of ballast using BCM on DN and UP tracks were carried out.
The average annual rainfall in this region is 630 mm. The minimum and
Fig. 1. Annual deep screening carried out over IR.
R.P. Singh, et al.
Fig. 2. Annual procurement of ballast and associated expenditure.
maximum average rail temperatures of the region are 20.2 °C and 47 °C
and as per IR temperature zone distribution, this region falls under zone
III.
In order to ascertain the fouling levels and ballast breakage cor-
rectly, a wide range of samples of ballast (i.e. fresh ballast, ballast due
for screening, ballast during screening, ballast after the screening,
Fig. 3. (a) Study site located on map; (b), (c) sampling of bottom ballast without geotextile; and (d) sampling of ballast with geotextile.
3
Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
ballast discarded during screening and fouled ballast after the passage
of different traffic tonnage) are collected from UP and DN tracks. 173
ballast samples (with the total mass of about 2500 kg) recovered from
90 different locations during the measurement period were tested in
laboratory. The top layer of ballast (150 mm below the bottom of a
sleeper) and the bottom layer of ballast (150–300 mm below sleeper
base) were recovered from the in-situ track as shown in (Fig. 3b–d).
4. Determination of number of load cycles
For understanding the effect of the traffic pattern, two different
track sections were selected owing to the difference in MGT. In order to
establish the correlation with other research methodologies “Number of
load cycles” is selected in addition to MGT. The number of load cycles is
determined by the method suggested by Selig and Water (1994).
106
Cm =
(At × Na) (1)
where Cm is the number of Load cycles per MGT, At is the axle load in
tons and Na is the number of axles per load cycle.
5. Woven geotextile characteristics
The geotextile has been laid while carrying out mechanized deep
screening on UP and DN Tracks in 2012 and 2007, respectively. The
samples of fresh geotextile were obtained from stores of Permanent
Way Inspector of Bodwad and samples of in-service geotextiles were
R.P. Singh, et al. Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

recovered from the in-situ track after service of 237 MGT (4 years) in
UP Track and 360 MGT (9 years) in DN Track. The wide width tensile
strength of the woven geotextile was found adequate (i.e. MD = 848 N;
XD = 3371 N) as per ASTM D 4595-11 (see Table 1).
6. Results and discussions
6.1. Particle size distribution curve with and without geotextile
Top and bottom layer of ballast samples were collected from 32
locations in UP Track and 18 locations in DN Track. Subsequently, at
Indian Railways Institute of Civil Engineering (IRICEN) Pune India,
sieve analysis with a standard set comprising 18 sieves (63–0.075 mm)
was performed to assess the particle breakage. Fig. 4 [(a)-(d)] shows the
particle size distribution (PSD) curve of ballast sample collected from
UP track without geotextiles, UP track with geotextile, DN track
without geotextiles and DN track with geotextiles. It was observed that:
(i) The percentage finer for each sieve size increased with an increase
in traffic. Similar results were also reported by the researchers for
laboratory testing.
(ii) In the top layer of ballast, the traffic-induced stresses were more
and it could be anticipated that ballast breakage was also more
prominent at the top. However, due to the highly porous ballast
bed (i.e. presence of a large number of air voids) the segregation of
degraded particles occurred, which reduced the void space of the
bottom layer of ballast.
(iii) The gradation of the top layer of ballast revealed the presence of
coarser particles even after the application of several thousand
load cycles. In general, the ballast gradation was found to remain
close to the gradation envelope of fresh ballast. No significant
difference in PSD curves of the top layer of ballast was observed
due to the placement of geotextile at the ballast-subgrade interface.
(iv) The PSD analysis of bottom layer of ballast indicated the presence of
more fines through an upward shift in the PSD curve. The PSD curve
of ballast where geotextile was placed was found to be in close
proximity to the enveloping curve of fresh ballast thus indicating a
smaller amount of fines. The PSD curve of ballast where geotextile
was not placed found shifted upward indicating the more degrada-
tion as compared to the track where geotextile was placed.
(v) The PSD curves of DN track ballast by using woven geotextile even
after the passage of 360 MGT or 27.65 million cycles, remained
close to the gradation envelope of fresh ballast. PSD curves of
ballast which served 9 years with geotextile showed the presence
of fewer fines than the ballast sample with just 10 months in ser-
vice where geotextile was not placed. This revealed the effective-
ness of geotextile as a separation layer.
6.2. Fouling of ballast with and without geotextile
Selig and Water (1994) suggested a method to determine the fouling
in the ballast layer by fouling index (FI)
FI = P4.75 + P0.075 (2)
where P4.75 and P 0.075 are percentages of ballast by weight finer than
b. The laying of geotextile reduced the ballast fouling by 74% and 64%
for 239 MGT and 327 MGT respectively.
c. The fouling pattern was non-uniform over the depth of the ballast
layer because the fragmented particles in the top layer of ballast
moved downward. This segregation effect became more pronounced
with increased number of load cycles.
d. The fouling indices in the bottom layer of ballast without geotextile
were 6.50 and 19.69 after passage of 239 MGT and 327 MGT traffic
respectively. These values were very high which could be attributed
due to non-placement of geotextile in this section.
DN Track
a. Placement of geotextile helped in reducing the fouling in ballast by
more than 28% after passage 434 MGT traffic.
b. The deep screening of DN Track was carried out in March 2007 and
after 11 years i.e. 434 MGT traffic, the FI were 6.09 and 8.54 for
ballast with and without geotextile, respectively. The track was
found to be moderately clean which showed non-requirement of
deep screening of DN Track which otherwise was due (IRPWM,
2004).
6.3. Ballast degradation assessment with and without geotextile w.r.t.
accumulated traffic
Marsal (1967) proposed a breakage factor (Bg), which is defined as a
summation (of the same sign) of the differences in percentage retained
between initial and final grain size distributions.
i=n i=n
Bg = Wk = Wkj Wkf
i=1 i=1 (3)
where Wkj is the percentage retained on sieve size k before the test, Wkf
is the percentage retained on sieve size k after the test and ΔWk is the
difference in percentage retained on sieve size k. n is the number of
sieves. The theoretical lower limit of Bg is zero and the upper limit is
100%. Hardin (1985) proposed relative breakage (Br) as described
below.
Br = Bt /Bp (4)
where breakage potential (Bp) is defined as the area between original
grain size distribution curve and the 0.075 mm sieve size and total
breakage (Bt) is defined as the area between original and final grain size
distribution curve. Br has a lower limit as zero and the upper limit as
unity.
In the present study, Bg and Br have been computed by considering
the grain size distribution curve of ballast during screening and ballast
due for screening as initial and final grain size distribution curve. From
Table 1
Mechanical properties of woven geotextile with traffic.
Property Unit Test Method Value
ASTM
Fresh After 239 After 360
Sample MGT MGT

4.75 mm and 0.075 mm, respectively. Mechanical

Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the fouling index of ballast samples of UP Tensile Force (MD) N D 4595-11 848 783 660
and DN tracks at different time intervals determined for top, bottom (Wide Width
and combined top and bottom layer of ballast. Strip)
Elongation at Break % D 4595-11 296 92 89
(MD)
UP Track Tensile Force (XD) N D 4595-11 3371 1061 766
(Wide Width
Strip)
a. After the passage of 327 MGT, the FI of ballast with no geotextile
Elongation at Break % D 4595-11 121 64 76
and with geotextile were 7.9% and 2.79% respectively, indicating (XD)
that ballast was moderately clean even after 6 years since its pla-
cement in the track. MD = Machine Direction, XD = Cross Machine Direction.

4
R.P. Singh, et al.
Fig. 4. Particle size distribution curve of ballast samples at the different measuring period in the track (a) UP track without geotextile; (b) UP track with geotextile;
(c) DN track without geotextile; (d) DN track with geotextile.
Fig. 6(a) and (b), the following observations can be made.
(a) On DN track for the ballast without geotextile, aggravated ballast
breakage was evident through large values of Bg 14.23, 24.08 and
25.69 after the application of 2.62 (1 year), 27.69 (9 years) and
33.38 (11 years) million load cycles respectively. After the deep
screening operation, the ballast contained coarser aggregates and
hence breakage was more in initial one year. Many fragments of
ballast particles were observed in the bottom layer due to possible
segregation effect. This resulted in higher Bg and Br for the bottom
layer.
(b) For same accumulated MGT, the degradation on UP track was more
compared to DN track. This is because heavily loaded freight wagon
loaded with coal used the UP track while empty freight trains used
the DN track. Both UP and DN track supported almost similar
passenger train traffic.
(c) Use of geotextile decreased Bg and Br on DN Track (N = 28 million)
by 17% and 20%, respectively. On UP Track (N = 33 million), the
decrease was17% and 50%, respectively.
6.4. Change in Los Angeles Abrasion and Aggregate Impact Value with
traffic
In deep screening cycles finer ballast particles were discarded and
deficiency was recouped by the fresh ballast. The track which under-
gone many rounds of deep screening in past has a combination of
5
Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
ballast particles which undergone different load cycles. To ascertain the
strength of in-situ ballast, Los Angeles Abrasion (LAA) and Aggregate
Impact Value (AIV) test as per IS 2386 IV, 1963 on the collected ballast
sample were performed in IRICEN, Pune, India. Fig. 7 shows that LAA
and AIV values increased with increase in load cycle which shows that
strength of ballast decreased with an increase in accumulated traffic.
The LAA value of fresh ballast and ballast subjected to 360 MGT traffic
were 11.61% and 17% respectively. The AIV values of fresh ballast and
ballast subjected to 360 MGT traffic were 7.78% and 11.5% respec-
tively. The upper limits of LAA and AIV of fresh ballast as per IR spe-
cification were 30% and 20% respectively. This study showed that LAA
and AIV values were within the limits and no ballast renewal was re-
quired on account of strength and durability considerations.
6.5. Comparison of efficacy of different deep screening methods
PSD curves, fouling, breakage index and relative breakageof in-situ
track ballast samples obtained from DN track where deep screening was
carried out manually and by BCM were analyzed. From Fig. 8(a), it is
observed that the PSD curve of track ballast which was screened
manually 5 years ago is above the PSD curve of ballast which was
screened by BCM 11 years ago, which showed the presence of more
fines.
From Fig. 8 (b and c) it is observed that the track after the passage of
434 MGT and service of 11 years after screening with BCM is better in
terms of fouling, and ballast breakage than the track on which
R.P. Singh, et al. Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 5. Benefits of geotextile in reducing ballast fouling on (a) UP track and (b) DN track of chosen section of Indian Railways.

Fig. 6. Degradation assessment of ballast by using geotextile under different traffic pattern of (a) UP track and (b) DN track.

6
R.P. Singh, et al. Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 7. Increase in Los Angeles Abrasion Value (LAA) and Aggregate Impact
Value (AIV) with an increase in accumulated traffic.

accumulated traffic is 215 MGT and service of 5 years after manual

screening. This study shows that manually deep screened track needs
early deep screening as compared to BCM screened track.

6.6. Reduction in the expenditure of ballast

As per Indian Railways criteria, the track is due for screening either
after 10 years or 500 MGT whichever is earlier (IRPWM, 2004). The
PSD curves of the ballast sample collected from DN Track section which
was due for deep screening shows that the fouling index is within the
moderately cleaned ballast range (Selig and Water, 1994) hence there is
no need of screening. If this track is screened, the expenditure per km
on ballast procurement will be about 12,500 USD. Apart from the cost
of ballast, there are other costs also associated with deep screening i.e.
the cost of BCM, manpower, traffic shutdown and cost associated with
10 days of speed restrictions. From results of para 6.1 it is obvious that
fouling is less in the track where geotextile is used at ballast subgrade
interface so during screening the ballast requirement for recoupment
will also be less. If the results of present study are extended over the
entire IR network, then the annual requirement can be reduced up to
50% or even more.

6.7. Minimization of wastage of ballast

During the mechanized screening of finer particles of ballast are

discarded and coarser particles are put back in the track. To assess the
efficacy of existing BCM machines 26 ballast samples of screened and
discarded material during screening operation were collected from
Bhusawal-Akola (Mumbai-Kolkata route) and Daund-Pune (Mumbai-
Chennai route) section of IR. PSD curves of discarded materials (Fig. 9a
and c) show that there are many coarser particles which are discarded
during screening with BCM.
The BCM currently discards particles finer than 30 mm leading to a
huge wastage. On the contrary, if particles smaller than 20 mm are
discarded, it would result in a potential saving of 28.33 M USD an-
nually. If this criterion is further relaxed by allowing particles up to size
of 10 mm, the potential saving would be to the tune of 39.76 M USD.
The use of geotextile could further reduce the ballast procurement cost
up to 56.26 M USD.
Fig. 9(b) shows the soil disposal unit (SDU) which can be attached
with BCMs and all the discarded material can be stored in it. The ma-
terial stored in SDUs after batching as per the gradation can be reused.
Fig. 8. Difference between ballast screened manually and screened by BCM; (a)
From Fig. 9 (c) and (d), it can be concluded that every year up to 5.5 MT
PSD curve, (b) fouling Index, and (c) breakage index.
of material which comes under the classification of sand and gravel can

7
R.P. Singh, et al.
Fig. 9. Wastage during mechanized screening of ballast; (a) discarded ballast during screening; (b) soil disposal unit; (c) PSD curve of ballast discarded, due for
screening, during screening,after screening and (d) discarded ballast material in last 6 years which can be reused.
be reused as a subgrade, sub-ballast/blanket material in railway em-
bankment construction or other construction projects. The reuse of
discarded material during BCM screening will help in reducing the
quarrying of natural resources such as ballast in a great way with a
favorable implication on environment and project cost.
7. Conclusions
A comprehensive laboratory testing program along with sophisti-
cated field sampling techniques was adopted. The ballast samples were
collected at different stages of accumulated traffic from UP and DN
tracks including the locations where woven geotextile was installed.
Following conclusions could be drawn from the present study:
(i) The DN track without geotextile where deep screening was carried
out 11 years ago (434 MGT traffic) and was considered to be
overdue for the screening as per the IRPWM 2004 was found to be
moderately clean. Based on findings reported here, the deep
screening could be delayed further by 5 more years. Similarly,
other railway routes where annual traffic is less than 45 MGT, the
deep screening cycle could be delayed by a few years depending on
track condition. On UP track without geotextile was found to be
8
Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
moderately clean in spite of the passage of 327 MGT traffic.
Comprehensive assessment adopted using different fouling and
breakage indices revealed that the maximum breakage and fouling
occurred during the initial stage of track operation, while the deep
screening would not be essential for track conveying the accumu-
lated traffic of 500 MGT. However, the actual delay in deep
screening could be ascertained after analyzing the PSD curves of
ballast sample at the end of 500 MGT.
(ii) Both UP and DN track where geotextile was provided showed less
fouling compared to tracks without geotextile. The use of geo-
textile as a separator thus reducing the amount of fouling is proved
beyond doubt. For such tracks with geotextile, the deep screening
cycles could be increased by 5 years on DN track and by 200 MGT
traffic on UP track. On an average,7000 km of track is deep
screened annually by Indian Railways. If 2000 km of deep
screening is reduced each year, it would result in annual saving of
25 M-USD on ballast alone.
(iii) The manual screening methods were less effective and their use
should be discouraged.
(iv) The BCM screening needs rationalization by changing the sieve
sizes and use of SDU, it will reduce the wastage during screening
and annual ballast procurement. This bears practical significance
R.P. Singh, et al.
in terms of favorable implications on reducing carbon footprints
and cost.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Mr Vishwesh Chaubey and Mr. N C
Sharda then Directors of IRICEN for providing support to carry out field
and laboratory testing at IRICEN, Pune, India. The authors also wish to
thank Mr Achal Khare Managing Director of NHSRCL for their support
in carring out this research. The authors also like to thank Permanent
Way Inspector Bodwad Mr Ajay Singh and Mr Subodh Kumar for their
support over two years in the collection of samples.
References
IS 2386-Part IV, 1963. Methods of Test for Aggregates for Concrete – Part IV Mechanical
Properties. Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India.
AREMA, 2010. Manual for Railway Engineering. American Railway Engineering and
Maintenance-of- way Association, Maryland, USA.
AS 2758.7, 2015. Aggregates and Rock for Engineering Purposes. Standards Australia,
vol. 7 Railway ballast, Sydney, Australia.
ASTM D 4595-11, 2011. Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Geotextiles by the
Wide Width Strip Method. (West Conshohocken, PA.
BS EN 13450, 2003. Aggregate for Railway Ballast. British Standards Institution.
Chawla, S., Shahu, J.T., 2016. Reinforcement and mud-pumping benefits of geosynthetics
in railway tracks: numerical analysis. Geotext. Geomembranes 44 (3), 344–357.
Chawla, S., Shahu, J.T., Gupta, R.K., 2019. Design Methodology for reinforced railway
tracks based on threshold stress approach. Geosynth. Int. 26 (2), 111–120.
Choudhury, D., Bharti, R.K., Chauhan, S., Indraratna, B., 2008. Response of multilayer
foundation system beneath railway track under cyclic loading. J. Geotech.
Geoenviron. Eng. 134 (10), 1558–1563.
CN 12-20 C, 2003. Crushed Rock Ballast. Canadian National Railways Specification.
Einav, I., 2007. Breakage mechanics- Part I: theory. J. Mech. Phys. Solids 55 (6),
1274–1297.
Esmaeili, M., Zakeri, J.A., Babaei, M., 2017. Laboratory and field investigation of the
effect of geogrid - reinforced ballast on railway track lateral resistance. Geotext.
Geomembranes 45 (2), 23–33.
Esmaeili, M., Salajegheh, M., Famenin, S.J., 2019. Experimental assessment of geotextile
serviceability lifetime as ballasted railway filter focusing on clogging phenomenon.
Constr. Build. Mater. 211, 675–687.
Ghosal, A., Som, N., 1993. Geotextiles and geomembranes in India – state of usage and
economic evaluation. Geotext. Geomembranes 12 (3), 193–213.
Hardin, B.O., 1985. Crushing of soil particles. J. Geotech. Eng. 111 (10), 1177–1192.
Harkness, J., Zervos, A., Le Pen, L., Aingaran, S., Powrie, W., 2016. Discrete element
simulation of railway ballast: modelling cell pressure effects in triaxial tests. Granul.
Matter 18 (3), 1–13.
Imjai, T., Pilakoutas, K., Guadagnini, 2019. Performance of geosynthetic-reinforced
flexible pavements in full scale field trials. Geotext. Geomembranes 47 (2), 217–229.
Indraratna, B., Nimbalkar, S., 2013. Stress-strain degradation response of railway ballast
Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
stabilized with geosynthetics. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 139 (5), 684–700.
Indraratna, B., Nimbalkar, S., Christie, D., Rujikiatkamjorn, C., Vinod, J., 2010. Field
assessment of the performance of a ballasted rail track with and without geosyn-
thetics. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 136 (7), 907–917.
Indraratna, B., Nimbalkar, S., Coop, M., Sloan, S.W., 2014. A constitutive model for coal-
fouled ballast capturing the effects of particle degradation. Comput. Geotech. 61,
96–107.
IRPWM, 2004. Indian Railway Permanent Way Manual. Ministry of Railways,
Government of India.
Izadi, E., Decraene, T., Strijcker, S.D., Bezuijen, A., Vinckier, D., 2018. A laboratory in-
vestigation on the impact resistance of a woven geotextile. Geotext. Geomembranes
46 (1), 91–100.
Kashani, H.F., Hyslip, J.P., Ho, C.L., 2017. Laboratory evaluation of railroad ballast be-
havior under heavy axle load and high traffic conditions. Transp. Geotech. 11, 69–81.
Kennedy, J.H., Woodward, P.K., Banimahd, M., Medero, G.M., 2012. Railway track
performance study using a new testing facility. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Geotech. Eng. 165
(5), 309–319.
Kermani, B., Xiao, M., Stoffels, S.M., Qiu, T., 2018. Reduction of subgrade fines migration
into subbase of flexible pavement using geotextile. Geotexiles and Geomembranes 46
(4), 377–383.
Lade, P.V., Yamamuro, J.A., Bopp, P.A., 1996. Significance of particle crushing in gran-
ular materials. J. Geotech. Eng. 122 (4), 309–316.
Lee, K.L., Farhoomand, I., 1967. Compressibility and crushing of granular soil in aniso-
tropic tri-axial compression. Can. Geotech. J. 4 (1), 68–86.
Lee, G., Kennedy, C.K., 1975. Quality, shape and degradation of aggregates. Q. J. Eng.
Geol. Hydrogeol. 8 (3), 193–209.
Li, L., Cui, F., Ferreira, P., Xiao, H., Jie, H., 2019. Experimental study of embankments
with different reinforcement materials and spacing between layers. Geotexiles and
Geomembranes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2019.03.003.
Marsal, R.J., 1967. Large-scale testing of rockfill materials. J. Soil Mech. Found. Div. 93
(2), 27–43.
Nimbalkar, S., Indraratna, B., 2016. Improved performance of ballasted railway track
using geosynthetics and rubber shockmat. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 142 (8)
04016031.
Placido, R., Protelinha, F.H.M., Futai, M.M., 2018. Field and laboratory time dependent
behaviors of geotextiles in reinforced soil walls. Geosynth. Int. 25 (2), 215–229.
Raymond, G.P., 1999. Railway rehabilitation geotextiles. Geotexiles and Geomembranes
17 (4), 213–230.
Raymond, G.P., 2000. Track and support rehabilitation for a mine company railroad. Can.
Geotech. J. 37 (2), 318–332.
Raymond, G.P., 2002. Reinforced ballast behavior subjected to repeated load. Geotext.
Geomembranes 20 (1), 39–61.
RDSO, 2016. Specification for Track Ballast, Research Designs and Standards
Organization, IRS: GE-1. Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
Sayeed, M.A., Shahin, M.A., 2018. Design of ballasted railway track foundation using
numerical modelling Part II: Applications. Can. Geotech. J. 55 (3), 369–396.
Selig, E.T., Waters, J.M., 1994. Track Geotechnology and Substructure Management.
Thomas Telford, London Reprint 2007.
Suiker, A.S.J., Selig, E.T., Raymond, F., 2005. Static and cyclic triaxial testing of ballast
and sub-ballast. J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 131 (6), 771–782.
Sweta, K., Hussaini, S.K.K., 2019. Behavior evaluation of geogrid-reinforced ballast-sub-
ballast interface under shear condition. Geotext. Geomembranes 47 (1), 23–31.