Review of materials used for ballast reinforcement

Abstract

This mini review summarizes the most recent research in ballast reinforcement. Several materials are being used for the purpose of improving the ballast layer in railways, including geosynthetics, rubber sheets and binding agents. Such methods of reinforcement have proven to be beneficial for increasing the strength, stiffness, and resilience of the ballast layer in addition to reducing settlement, breakage, degradation, and maintenance cost and frequency. Latest studies try to find the best types, placement, and combination of geosynthetics to achieve the highest strength and resistance, in addition to obtaining the optimum percentage of binding agents and methods of applying them in order to discover the most effective binder that achieves the most improvement to the mechanical properties of the layer for a reasonable price. An overview of the recent tests conducted to study the reinforced ballast layer and their results is presented in this paper, as well as an overall evaluation of the implementation of these reinforcement methods in railways.