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Effects of water and fines contents on the resilient modulus of the interlayer soil of railway substructure

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Abstract

This paper deals with the resilient behavior of the interlayer soil which is created mainly by the interpenetration of ballast and subgrade soils. The interlayer soil studied was taken from a site in the southeast of France. Large-scale cyclic triaxial tests were carried out at three water contents (w = 4, 6 and 12 %) and three fines contents corresponding to 5, 10 % subgrade added to the natural interlayer soil and 10 % fine particles (<80 μm) removed from the natural interlayer soil. Soil specimens underwent various deviator stresses, and for each deviator stress, a large number of cycles was applied. The effects of deviator stress, number of cycles, water content and fines content on the resilient modulus (M r) were analyzed. It appears that the effects of water content and fines content must be analyzed together because the two effects are closely linked. Under unsaturated conditions, the soil containing high fines content has higher resilient modulus due to the contribution of suction. When the soil approaches the saturated state, it loses its mechanical enhancement with a sharp decrease in resilient modulus.

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Acknowledgments

This study was carried out within the research project RUFEX “Reuse and reinforcement of ancient railway substructure and existing foundations”. The authors would like to address their deep thanks to Ecole des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC), Railway Network of France (RFF), French Railways Company (SNCF) and French National Research Agency for their supports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Navier/CERMES, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, 6-8 av. Blaise Pascal, Cité Descartes, Champs-sur-Marne, 77455, Marne-la-Vallée Cedex, France

    Trong Vinh Duong, Yu-Jun Cui, Anh Minh Tang, Jean-Claude Dupla & Jean Canou

  2. French Railway Company (SNCF), Paris, France

    Nicolas Calon & Alain Robinet

Authors
  1. Trong Vinh Duong
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  2. Yu-Jun Cui
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  3. Anh Minh Tang
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  4. Jean-Claude Dupla
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  5. Jean Canou
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  6. Nicolas Calon
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  7. Alain Robinet
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Correspondence to Yu-Jun Cui.

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Duong, T.V., Cui, YJ., Tang, A.M. et al. Effects of water and fines contents on the resilient modulus of the interlayer soil of railway substructure. Acta Geotech. 11, 51–59 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0341-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-014-0341-0

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