GRIDMAT—A Sustainable Material Combining Mat and Geogrid Concept for Ballasted Railways
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemAutor
Del Sol Sánchez, Miguel; Mattinzioli, Thomas Arthur; Castillo Mingorance, Juan Manuel; Moreno Navarro, Fernando Manuel; Rubio Gámez, María Del CarmenEditorial
MDPI
Materia
Geogrid Mat Railway Laboratory testing Box test LCA
Fecha
2022-09-07Referencia bibliográfica
Sol-Sánchez, M... [et al.]. GRIDMAT—A Sustainable Material Combining Mat and Geogrid Concept for Ballasted Railways. Sustainability 2022, 14, 11186. [https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811186]
Patrocinador
Spanish Government RTI2018-102124-J-IOOResumen
Under ballast mats (UBM) have demonstrated their capacity to reduce section stiffness
and ballast degradation. However, UBM can cause ballast destabilisation under some circumstances
due to excessive vertical track deflections, requiring the installation of geogrids over the mat which
increases costs and time. As alternative to this solution, this paper shows the design of GridMat:
a sustainable technology for ballasted railways that combines the concepts of geogrids and under
ballast mats (UBM) manufactured from recycled crumb rubber. This aims to provide damping
capacity while limiting the oscillations and settlement of ballast layer. To obtain the optimal GridMat
design, five different configurations varying the aperture size and void areas were assessed through
laboratory box tests reproducing the track section including the GridMat. Results showed that the
optimal Gridmat was of 55 mm aperture seize and 25% void area. To evaluate the sustainability
of this design, the expected number of conservation and renewal operations were calculated from
full-scale laboratory tests and a life-cycle assessment and life-cycle cost analysis were undertaken.
GridMat showed long-term reduction in ballast degradation and track settlement, reducing need for
maintenance and renewal operations in comparison with standard mats.