An experimental analysis of dynamic deformation and settlement resistance in a novel prestressed railway subgrade

Qishu Zhang, Fang Xu, Junli Dong, Wuming Leng and Yafeng Li

International Journal of Rail Transportation, 2025, vol. 13, issue 4, 635-658

Abstract: The dynamic deformation characteristics of track-subgrade systems under moving train loads provide valuable insights for vibration and serviceability assessment of the track-subgrade. This study developed three 1:5 scale track-subgrade models incorporating the novel prestressed subgrade structure and conducted two series of dynamic tests to examine how the heavy-haul train axle loads and prestress levels affected the track-subgrade dynamic deformation. The primary frequency of the subgrade dynamic displacement was observed closely aligned with the input loading frequency of 2 Hz, indicating the validity of the test setup. The track-subgrade dynamic displacement decreased with increasing distance from the loading source, of which the elastic deformation near the subgrade shoulder attenuated by approximately 79% compared to that at the sleeper end. The elastic deformation at the monitoring points approximately linearly increased with the axle load at rates ranging from 0.0018 to 0.0029 mm/t. Conversely, increasing prestress reduced the track-subgrade elastic deformation with average rates of 22.8 and 1.63 μm/100 kPa at the sleeper end and subgrade shoulder, respectively. Furthermore, application of prestress enhanced the track stiffness, with the equivalent track stiffness rising by 16.3% and 17.7% when the prestress increased from 0 to 50 kPa and from 50 to 100 kPa, respectively. The study also showed that the prestressed reinforcement structures could significantly mitigate the cumulative track-subgrade settlement over 60%, comparing the prestressed subgrade with 50 kPa prestress to the unreinforced subgrade, which highlighted the superior deformation resistance of prestressed subgrades under the train loads.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/23248378.2024.2390429 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjrtxx:v:13:y:2025:i:4:p:635-658

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjrt20

DOI: 10.1080/23248378.2024.2390429

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Rail Transportation is currently edited by Wanming Zhai and Kelvin C. P. Wang

More articles in International Journal of Rail Transportation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().