Numerical and Field Study on the Relationship Between Static and Dynamic Stiffness of Ballast Railway

Vertical stiffness of ballast railway is an effective parameter on track quality level and maintenance cost. As track dynamic surcharges could have great impact on the majority of stiffness, this parameter need to categorize as static or dynamic. Plate load test (PLT) and light weight deflectometer test (LWD) are two widespread used tests in railway construction processes to measure static and dynamic stiffness’s respectively. PLT is a time consuming test and its implementation is usually accompanied with temporary block of track but LWD have the opportunity to perform faster. On the other hand, static stiffness measured from PLT is the parameter which railway standards and guidelines used to define their criteria about the quality of different track pavement layers. So this paper is concerned to extract a mathematical relation between the results of these two tests. Linear regression method used for this purpose. Static and dynamic stiffness ratios are derived for both situations, before and after tamping process. Finally a finite element numerical model used to calculate vertical stiffness of ballast layer.