A new degradation model for life cycle assessment of railway ballast materials

Fathali, Masoud; Chalabii, Jafar; Astaraki, Farshad; Esmaeili, Morteza

doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121437

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Recently, several studies applied the LCA method to assess the environmental impacts of railways [20,23,[87][88][89][90]. The LCA may need to fulfil different requirements in different decision contexts.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends and Challenges in Railway Sustainability: The State of the Art regarding Measures, Strategies, and Assessment Tools

Giunta

2023

Sustainability

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Rail is expected to become the backbone of future mobility in the world as the cleanest and greenest high-volume transport. Rail generates the lowest CO2 emissions and energy consumption when in operation, with respect to the other transportation modes, but during construction and maintenance phases, its environmental impacts are significant and need to be carefully assessed and properly mitigated. This paper, through an extensive analysis of the recent literature, aims to provide a comprehensive framework of trends and challenges in railway sustainability, with particular attention paid to track and related materials and components, maintenance strategies, and methods of assessment of sustainability. The followed approach takes into consideration the lifespan of the track and the related main stages. The results show that: (i) several innovative sustainable materials have been introduced with significant environmental performances and limitations, mainly due to the lack of knowledge of long-term mechanical behavior; (ii) appropriate strategies of maintenance, supported by effective monitoring of the track conditions, can reduce negative effects on the environment and society and contribute to making this transportation mode greener; (iii) many devices for the automated detection of the track defects allow increasingly widespread and effective monitoring of the track and are essential means in overcoming the challenge of “smart rails”; and (iv) life cycle assessment (LCA) and circularity metrics are effective and indispensable tools in the decision-making process, since they help to quantify the potential environmental enhancement of different materials and solutions.

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Section: Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends and Challenges in Railway Sustainability: The State of the Art regarding Measures, Strategies, and Assessment Tools

Giunta

2023

Sustainability

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“…Previous researchers have experimentally examined the degradation of ballast material and its influence on mechanical strength. The experimental degradation of ballast is quantified by the bulk degradation of materials such as fowling index, relative breakage, and ballast breakage index [3][4][5]. However, the degradation of bulk assembly greatly depends on the shape change of individual grains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the Surface Roughness Evaluation of Railway Ballast Grain Under Rotating Drum Abrasion

Debanath

2024

GEOMATE

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Railway ballast is a crucial component of the railway infrastructure, with the geometric shape and surface morphology of ballast grains playing an essential role in the overall strength of the ballasted track. This study investigates the evolution of surface roughness for two types of railway ballast, Andesite and Sandstone, at various stages of abrasion using a rotating drum test. The surface texture changes are analyzed by comparing amplitude roughness parameters and power spectral density distributions. Additionally, the overall grain shape change is tracked by grain shape parameters: ellipsoid volume ratio and rotation resistance angle. A 3D scanning workflow is developed using the focus stacking method; the accuracy is verified by standard surface S-22. Experimental findings reveal that laboratory-abraded ballast grains exhibit significantly lower roughness than fresh ballast grains, following a power law decay with abrasion cycles. Notably, roughness does not differ substantially between the Andesite and Sandstone ballast. The observed surface roughness evolution is attributed to the progressive removal of surface peaks through continuous attrition at the interfaces between grains and the drum wall. Furthermore, the study reveals that the abrasion process primarily involves the removal of surface texture, followed by subsequent changes in angularity and overall grain shape.

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“…Track ballast with a more varied granulometry has fewer voids, making the bed more resistant. However, its drainage efficiency may be compromised by fouling (contamination) through the accumulation of fine particles in these voids [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of the Permeability of Potential Ballast Rocks from Northern Rio de Janeiro State under Different Fouling Rates after Sodium Sulfate Attack

Souza¹,

Xavier²,

Costa³

et al. 2023

Materials

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This paper aimed to analyze the reduction in the ballast layer permeability simulated in a laboratory in saturated conditions by the presence of rock dust as a contaminant of three types of rocks explored in different deposits in the northern region of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through laboratory testing relating the physical properties of rock particles before and after sodium sulfate attack. Sodium sulfate attack is justified by the proximity of some sections of the planned EF-118 Vitória-Rio railway line to the coast and of the sulfated water table to the ballast bed, which could degrade the material used and compromise the railway track. Granulometry and permeability tests were performed to compare ballast samples with fouling rates of 0, 10, 20, and 40% rock dust by volume. A constant head permeameter was used to analyze hydraulic conductivity and establish correlations between the petrography and mercury intrusion porosimetry of the rocks, namely two types of metagranite (Mg1 and Mg3) and a gneisse (Gn2). Rocks, such as Mg1 and Mg3, with a larger composition of minerals susceptible to weathering according to petrography analyses, tend to be more sensitive to weathering tests. This, in conjunction with the climate in the region studied, with average annual temperature and rainfall of 27 °C and 1200 mm, could compromise track safety and user comfort. Additionally, the Mg1 and Mg3 samples showed greater percentage variation in wear after the Micro-Deval test, which could damage the ballast due to the considerable changeability of the material. The mass loss caused by abrasion due to the passage of rail vehicles was assessed by the Micro-Deval test, with Mg3 (intact rock) declining from 8.50 ± 1.5 to 11.04 ± 0.5% after chemical attack. However, Gn2, which exhibited the greatest mass loss among the samples, showed no significant variation in average wear, and its mineralogical characteristics remained almost unchanged after 60 sodium sulfate cycles. These aspects, combined with its satisfactory hydraulic conductivity rate, indicate that Gn2 is suitable for use as railway ballast in the EF-118 railway line.

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A new degradation model for life cycle assessment of railway ballast materials

Cited by 11 publications

References 14 publications

Trends and Challenges in Railway Sustainability: The State of the Art regarding Measures, Strategies, and Assessment Tools

Trends and Challenges in Railway Sustainability: The State of the Art regarding Measures, Strategies, and Assessment Tools

Quantifying the Surface Roughness Evaluation of Railway Ballast Grain Under Rotating Drum Abrasion

Comparison of the Permeability of Potential Ballast Rocks from Northern Rio de Janeiro State under Different Fouling Rates after Sodium Sulfate Attack

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