Stress-strain characteristics and service life of conventional and asphaltic underlayment track under heavy load Babaranjang trains traffic

Abstract

A more durable rail track structure is fundamental in the railway industry, allowing the government to operate the train with higher speed and axle load. That means more passengers and better quality of railroads travel, thereby reducing the maintenance costs and ensuring passengers' comfort and safety. The effect of a sub-ballast and asphalt layer thickness and freight train traffic with low operational speed on mechanical behavior and design life of conventional track and asphaltic underlayment track, are presented in this paper. One of the significant findings to emerge from this study is that an AC layer with minimum thickness of 0.20 m is required in the asphalt underlayment track application for Indonesian railway infrastructure to facilitate Babaranjang freight trains with up to 50% more tonnage. The evidence from this study also suggests that the asphalt underlayment track with 0.20 m thick of AC layer that contains grade PG70-28 binder could be beneficial to be applied in Indonesian railway system so that the rail track could be constructed with less volume of works than the regular Indonesia's conventional track with 0.40 m of sub-ballast layer.