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Abstract
Railway ballast, for which natural crushed stone aggregates have been generally used, is an essential track component for the distribution of train loads along the rails and sleepers to the roadbed. However, the use of natural crushed stone aggregate causes environmental destruction as well as dust production in train service. This paper evaluates the feasibility of using the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag as railway ballast material. A series of physical and chemical quality tests are performed to investigate the characteristics of the materials associated with the effect of aging period due to the remaining free CaO and MgO in the BOF steel slag. Three different aging periods (i.e., 0, 3, and 6 months) are used to compare with various standards and the properties of the crushed stone aggregates. It is demonstrated that the physical and chemical properties of the BOF steel slag with different aging periods satisfy all requirements of standards sufficiently. Especially, the BOF steel slag without aging (i.e., 0 month) provides the similar physical and chemical properties, when compared to the BOF steel slag with aging (i.e., 3 and 6 months). Thus, it is possible to apply the BOF steel slag regardless of aging periods to the railway ballast materials instead of natural crushed stone aggregates.
Highlights
Railway ballast helps distributing train loads along the rails and sleepers to the roadbed
For the currently used natural ballast, there are three problematic issues: (1) it is continuously exposed to abrasion and crush due to running train loading; (2) crushed or fragmented particles clogging the voids of the roadbed cause some problems with respect to the function of roadbed drainage systems; (3) both Multiple Tie Tamper (MTT) track maintenance works for track deformation and ballast cleaning lead to accelerating sudden settlements of the ballast layer
This paper describes the feasibility of the application of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag for railway ballast material by conducting physical and chemical quality tests based on standards
Summary
Railway ballast helps distributing train loads along the rails and sleepers to the roadbed. Natural crushed stone aggregates which have similar engineering properties of concrete aggregates are widely employed as railway ballast materials It is because the natural crushed stone aggregates reduce vibration as well as dust production in train service resulting from the cushioning effect of itself, and are easy to be installed. It is necessary to develop the eco-friendly and geo-engineered alternative ballast materials to provide improvement in stability during the ballasted track maintenance. Based on this background, this study aims to evaluate the feasibility of the steel slag as the railway ballast material to substitute for the natural ballast
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