Railway subgrade performance after repeated flooding – Large-scale laboratory testing

A rail track system comprises a number of components and, in order to analyse and predict track behaviour, it is essential to understand the function of each component as each will have a major influence on overall track performance. Historically, rail track substructure, particularly the subgrade, has been given less attention than the superstructure despite its importance in track design. This paper presents a full-scale experimental investigation to study the behaviour of subgrade in both saturated and unsaturated conditions, and how this behaviour changes with soil suction. Further, the investigation also studies the role of sand-blanketing during and after repeated flooding events. The results show that as soil suction reduces, flooding results in a continual reduction in both soil stiffness and track stiffness. It is also shown that the introduction of a sand-blanket has limited effectiveness as a drainage material, particularly after prolonged and repeated flooding.