Compression and Degradation of Railway Ballast Under One-Dimensional Loading

The rate at which railway track geometry deteriorates is greatly influenced by the behaviour of ballast. This paper presents the findings of a series of one-dimensional compression tests on latite ballast used by the State Rail Authority of New South Wales in the construction of railway tracks. These tests are part of an extended research program designed to thoroughly study the stress-strain relationships, failure properties and degredation characteristics of various types of railway ballast.