Breakage Test of Railway Ballast Materials with New Laboratory Method

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of a R&D work in 2014. Fivedifferent types of andesite railway ballast material with differentLARB (%) (Los Angeles abrasion) as well as MDERB (%)(Micro-Deval abrasion) values were investigated in laboratorywith pulsating test which models the real condition muchbetter (the used parameters were determined accordance withinternational dynamic design method). Grain size distributionsrelated to the five several aggregates were defined beforeand after pulsating tests. Particle breakages were then calculatedby different method publicized in international literature.Relationships were searched between particle breakages dueto laboratory test and LARB (%) as well as MDERB (%) valuesof railway ballast samples. Time interval (cycle) of ballastcleaning work were attempted to compute with help of specialparameters used by Hungarian and other railway companiesunderlined the limits of calculation method. Finally recommendationswere formulated related to use of this new laboratorytest method for estimation of ballast particle breakage.