RAILS ON GEOCELL REINFORCED EARTH BEDS UNDER A MOVING LOAD

Shashank Bhatra ¹ and Priti Maheshwari ^{2, *}

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Uttarakhand and Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247667, India

Email: shashankbhatra991@gmail.com

² Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247667, India

Tel: 91-1332-285883, Fax: 91-1332-275568, E-mail: priti_mahesh2001@yahoo.com

* Corresponding Author

An attempt has been made herein to analyse the rails resting on earth beds with geocell inclusion under a moving load. Reinforced soil system comprises of a granular fill layer (modelled as Pasternak shear layer) followed by a geocell inclusion (represented by an infinite beam with finite bending stiffness) overlying the foundation soil (modelled as a series of spring and dashpot connected in parallel). The governing differential equations have been developed and converted for general use in non-dimensional form. These equations are solved using suitable boundary conditions and employing Finite Difference Scheme along with iterative Gauss-Seidel technique. Critical velocity of soil-foundation system has been determined. The parametric study conducted shows the influence of applied load, relative compressibility of soils, relative flexural rigidity, depth of placement of geocell, damping in the system and velocity of load on the response of rail and geocell reinforcement. Also, a sensitivity study has been carried out and it has been observed that that sensitivity of the maximum positive response of the top beam towards variation in magnitude of applied load, relative compressibility of soil and relative flexural rigidity of beams is more as compared to other model parameters.