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International Journal of Railway Technology
ISSN 2049-5358
IJRT, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2015
Evolution of Railway Track Settlement after Ballast Tamping
O. Peltokangas and A. Nurmikolu

Department of Civil Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
O. Peltokangas, A. Nurmikolu, "Evolution of Railway Track Settlement after Ballast Tamping", International Journal of Railway Technology, 4(2), 1-18, 2015. doi:10.4203/ijrt.4.2.1
Keywords: railway track settlement, ballast, ballast fouling, tamping, monitoring, in-situ measurement, track stiffness.

Abstract
The main goal of this study was to develop a long-term monitoring system for the measurement of track settlement, especially after a ballast tamping operation, and to evaluate the effect of track properties, such as ballast condition, on settlement. The final monitoring programme was conducted on three in-situ test sites where two potentiometers were used to measure the vertical level of both ends of a single sleeper. It was found that track settlement after tamping consists of two stages: quick initial settlement immediately after tamping followed by slower, almost linear settlement. Ballast condition affects settlement rate, slightly, but its impact remained a bit unclear since settlement is also influenced by several other factors such as track stiffness. Based on the experiences from this study, a new monitoring programme, including longer track sections, have recently been launched by the authors.

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