Static and cyclic performance of polyurethane foam adhesive bound soil-rubber mixtures under drained conditions

The major drawbacks of a railway track include noise, vibration, and aggravated track degradation. Resilient mats and asphalt have been increasingly used in recent years to mitigate this noise and vibration. However, these materials are quite expensive. Conventional asphalt is very stiff and brittle, making it more prone to cracking. The present work aims to develop a novel material that can be used as a base layer in ballasted and slab tracks. The current research proposes a sustainable and resilient base course layer comprising ground rubber (GR) and polyurethane foam adhesive (PFA). In this study, the performance of GR embedded in the sand is investigated. The use of PFA-treated sand with and without GR is then explored. The optimum dosage of PFA for soil and GR for treated and untreated soil is recommended based on static direct simple shear (SDSS) and cyclic direct simple shear (CDSS) tests. SDSS tests were performed to evaluate the monotonic performance of all mixtures. CDSS tests were performed to assess the long-term performance of these different mixes under repeated cyclic loading (50,000 load cycles) and varying cyclic shear stress amplitude. It is shown that PFA helps reduce the settlement and enhance soil shear strength, while GR increases the damping ratio of the soil. The optimum dosage of PFA is recommended 10%. The optimum GR content for untreated and PFA-treated soil is recommended 5 and 10%, respectively.

Automated summary

The major drawbacks of railway tracks are noise, vibration, and track degradation. Resilient mats and asphalt have been used to reduce noise and vibration, but they are expensive. This study aims to develop a sustainable and resilient base layer for railway tracks using ground rubber and polyurethane foam adhesive. Tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the material, and it was found that the polyurethane foam adhesive helped reduce settlement and improve soil shear strength, while the ground rubber increased the damping ratio of the soil. Optimum dosages of polyurethane foam adhesive and ground rubber were recommended.