An alternative sustainable railway maintenance technique based on the use of rubber particles

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• 作者：Miguel Sol-Sá ; nchez ^msol@ugr.es ; Fernando Moreno-Navarro ^{fmoreno@ugr.es} ; German Martí ; nez-Montes ^{gmmontes@ugr.es} ; Mª ; Carmen Rubio-Gá ; mez ; ^{mcrubio@ugr.es}
• 关键词：Cleaner railway track maintenance ; Stone-rubber blowing ; Rubber particles ; Waste tires ; Stoneblowing ; Under-sleeper pads
• 刊名：Journal of Cleaner Production
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：20 January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：142
• 期：part_P4
• 页码：3850-3858
• 全文大小：1262 K
• 卷排序：142

文摘

The use of Under Sleeper Pads (USPs) and a process known as stoneblowing can be conceived as alternative maintenance solutions that aim to reduce the railway track degradation, and then the frequency of interventions, particularly in transition sections where differential settlements are more likely to occur. Based on these techniques, this paper proposes another alternative solution by combining the benefits of both previous processes through using rubber particles (from waste tires) as part of the aggregate blown during the stoneblowing process in order to obtain an elastic granular layer that act as USPs (damping loads, modifying track stiffness, etc.), and then, reducing the economic and environmental problems associated with track maintenance, while using an abundant waste material. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this proposed technique by analysing the influence of using different quantities of rubber particles as flexible stones; comparing its impact with the application of USPs (of varying degrees of stiffness) in combination with the conventional stoneblowing process; and assessing the possible effect of the thickness of the granular layer blown under the sleeper. Results show that using rubber particles as flexible aggregates to replace part of the small stones, yields a significant reduction in ballast degradation and settlement, improving the effectiveness of the stoneblowing process and presenting a comparable (or superior) behaviour to that recorded when employing USPs. Then, it could be possible to reduce ballast particle degradation and maintenance frequency (decreasing the consumption of energy by the machinery as well as the use of extra natural aggregates to restore track geometry), increasing therefore track durability.