There are currently substantial lengths of railway embankments which have been constructed over peat. As a large amount of the current railway infrastructure was constructed more than a century ago, these earth structures are a legacy of the construction methods and traffic loads of that time. These peat soils were often so soft and weak that it required the use of log fascines to reinforce the base of embankment build on top of it. These peat foundations have proved to be an ongoing challenge for railways to maintain the quality and safety of the track. The problems posed by peat foundations range from excessive vertical displacement and large settlements to sudden atastrophic failures.
The start of this research was conducted with Northern Ireland Railways (NIR). NIR initiated this research as it was concerned with an increased rate of deterioration of the railway tracks and the large cyclic track displacements on two embankments which had peat foundations. Track displacements were measured and modelled to determine the effect of train speed on these displacements. The analytic (Winkler) model used suggested that the train speed had a limited effect on the magnitude of the deflection of the embankment within NIR operating speeds, but has the potential to significantly reduce the power lost to the damping within the embankment and subgrade.
Speakers
Dr David Hughes
Senior Lecturer, School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering
Queen’s University, Belfast
Dr Michael Hendry
Associate Director, Canadian Rail Research Laboratory
University of Alberta
Chaired by:
Rab Fernie
Chair, British Geological Association
For more information, please contact (recordedlectures@ice.org.uk)
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The John Mitchell lecture - Track Displacement and Energy Loss in a Railway Embankment over Peat
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