The mainline railway track between Dublin and Belfast in Northern Ireland was constructed during the 1850's. Substantial lengths of railway embankment were constructed over poor-quality peaty soils. This was accomplished using tree trunk fascines placed directly on the natural ground surface; with poor-quality local peaty soils used as light weight fill.<p>In recent years, Northern Ireland Railways have noticed that these sections of railway track have been deteriorating more rapidly than sections of the track where the foundations are more competent. The magnitudes of displacement of the track under train loading appear to be increasing gradually over time and train speeds have had to be reduced.<p>This thesis is based on the research done to monitor the response of these railway track and embankment structures to dynamic train loading. The displacements were monitored for two different embankments under a variety of loading conditions and for various seasonal conditions. These displacements were recorded using a sensor created for this task. The sensor consisted of a photo-sensitive array mounted on the sleepers and a laser, which was placed outside the area of influence of train loading, and shone on the photo-sensitive array. <p>Analytical (Winkler) modelling was conducted to determine the effects of train speed and the cause of the large train-induced displacements. Analytical and finite element modelling were used to determine the effectiveness of alternative methods of embankment stabilization.<p>The results from the analytical modelling suggest that the deformation of the embankment under train loading was not due to dynamic excitation, but static deformation of the poor-quality fill and soft foundation materials. From both the analytical and finite element modelling of possible remediation techniques, methods that stiffen the embankment and foundation material are shown to be the most effective at reducing the train induced deflection of the embankment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-08082007-185050 |
| Date | 15 August 2007 |
| Creators | Hendry, Michael Thomson |
| Contributors | Sharma, Jitendra, Hughes, David, Haug, Moir D., Barbour, S. Lee |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-08082007-185050/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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