Methods for determining contact stiffness and damping characteristics of individual railway ballast grains
Methods for determining contact stiffness and damping characteristics of individual railway ballast grains
The macroscopic dynamic behaviour of granular systems composed of ballast particles is closely related to their mesoscopic contact characteristics, such as contact stiffness and damping between individual pairs of ballast particles. Existing studies primarily conduct macroscopic-level comparisons between simulations and experiments to calibrate the parameters of ballast groups or layers. In this work, mesoscopic contact tests were conducted to investigate the contact behaviour of individual ballast grains with different particle size and service condition. Analysis methods are proposed to extract the nonlinear stiffness behaviour from the hysteresis curves as well as the corresponding damping ratios. These methods are verified using simple theoretical modelling of Hertzian nonlinear behaviour with damping. A correction method is proposed to account for plastic deformation.
Ballast grains Uniaxial compression Hertzian contact Damping ratio, Uniaxial compression, Hertzian contact, Ballast grains, Damping ratio
Zhang, Tianqi
76e34dfb-868e-41ba-8aa2-19e983e09f22
Thompson, David
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Murthy, Madhu
e139e3d3-2992-4579-b3f0-4eec3ddae98c
Piazza, Jacopo
15d8ff4d-af08-4667-954f-d413ce68a7b8
Luo, Yanyun
3f628774-9c62-442a-a87e-af0bd23c23c8
23 October 2025
Zhang, Tianqi
76e34dfb-868e-41ba-8aa2-19e983e09f22
Thompson, David
bca37fd3-d692-4779-b663-5916b01edae5
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Murthy, Madhu
e139e3d3-2992-4579-b3f0-4eec3ddae98c
Piazza, Jacopo
15d8ff4d-af08-4667-954f-d413ce68a7b8
Luo, Yanyun
3f628774-9c62-442a-a87e-af0bd23c23c8
Zhang, Tianqi, Thompson, David, Powrie, William, Le Pen, Louis, Murthy, Madhu, Piazza, Jacopo and Luo, Yanyun
(2025)
Methods for determining contact stiffness and damping characteristics of individual railway ballast grains.
Tribology International, 214 (C), [111327].
(doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2025.111327).
Abstract
The macroscopic dynamic behaviour of granular systems composed of ballast particles is closely related to their mesoscopic contact characteristics, such as contact stiffness and damping between individual pairs of ballast particles. Existing studies primarily conduct macroscopic-level comparisons between simulations and experiments to calibrate the parameters of ballast groups or layers. In this work, mesoscopic contact tests were conducted to investigate the contact behaviour of individual ballast grains with different particle size and service condition. Analysis methods are proposed to extract the nonlinear stiffness behaviour from the hysteresis curves as well as the corresponding damping ratios. These methods are verified using simple theoretical modelling of Hertzian nonlinear behaviour with damping. A correction method is proposed to account for plastic deformation.
Text
Methods for determining contact stiffness and damping characteristics of individual railway ballast grains
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 18 October 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 19 October 2025
Published date: 23 October 2025
Keywords:
Ballast grains Uniaxial compression Hertzian contact Damping ratio, Uniaxial compression, Hertzian contact, Ballast grains, Damping ratio
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 506964
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/506964
ISSN: 0301-679X
PURE UUID: c43ce9aa-1908-470f-a00b-d8a0ef486308
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Date deposited: 24 Nov 2025 17:40
Last modified: 25 Nov 2025 02:51
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Contributors
Author:
Tianqi Zhang
Author:
Jacopo Piazza
Author:
Yanyun Luo
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