Past studies on sands have shown that the shear strength measured in plane strain tests was higher than that measured in triaxial tests. It was observed that this difference changed with the friction angle &amp / #966 / cv at constant volume related to the mineralogical composition. In order to investigate the difference in strength measured in the wedge shear test, which approaches the plane strain condition, in the triaxial test, and in the shear box test, Anatolian sands were obtained from different locations in Turkey. Mineralogical analyses, identification tests, wedge shear tests (cylindrical wedge shear tests (cylwests) and prismatic wedge shear tests (priswests)), triaxial tests, and shear box tests were performed on these samples. In all shear tests, the shear strength measured was found to increase with the inclination &amp / #948 / of the shear plane to the bedding planes. Thus, cylwests (&amp / #948 / = 60o) iii yielded higher values of internal friction &amp / #966 / by about 3.6o than priswests (&amp / #948 / = 30o) under normal stresses between 17 kPa and 59 kPa. Values of &amp / #966 / measured in cylwests were about 1.08 times those measured in triaxial tests (&amp / #948 / &amp / #8776 / 65o), a figure close to the corresponding ratio of 1.13 found by past researchers between actual plane strain and triaxial test results. There was some indication that the difference between cylwest and triaxial test results increased with the &amp / #966 / cv value of the samples. With the smaller &amp / #948 / values (30o and 40o), priswests yielded nearly the same &amp / #966 / values as those obtained in triaxial tests under normal stresses between 20 kPa and 356 kPa. Shear box tests (&amp / #948 / =0o) yielded lower values of &amp / #966 / than cylwests (by about 7.9o), priswests (by about 4.4o), and triaxial tests (by about 4.2o) under normal stresses between 17 kPa and 48 kPa. It was shown that the shear strength measured in shear box tests showed an increase when &amp / #948 / was increased from 30o to 60o / this increase (about 4.2o) was of the order of the difference (about 3.6o) between priswest (&amp / #948 / = 30o) and cylwest (&amp / #948 / = 60o) results mentioned earlier. Shear box specimens with &amp / #948 / = 60o, prepared from the same batch of any sample as the corresponding cylwests, yielded &amp / #966 / values very close to those obtained in cylwests.

For modeling of particulate materials, discrete element method (DEM) is commonly used. It perceives every particle like a single body. A railway ballast loading by trains is a typical example of a particulate discrete material. By a passing train, static and dynamic forces act on a track bed. Cycling loading results in pernament changes in the railway ballast. Cavity creation, agglomeration and ballast cracking lead to damages in rail traffic. Usage of the discrete element method may reveal the real issues of the railway ballast and it may leads to a reduction of costs associated with a design and repairs. This thesis is focused on the ballast modeling and identification of the discrete model parameters. Obtained results are compared with real experiments from Nottingham University.