Experimental Verification of Modified Sub-Ballast Layers, Application of Foam Glass Boards

Abstract

Glass waste decomposition time in landfills or the countryside can exceed several millennia. Recycling and finding new uses for municipal waste, where glass accounts for approx. 10 % of the volume, is therefore essential to ensure the sustainable development of society. A novel method of reusing glass waste is to produce a thermal insulation material called foam glass in the form of boards. The manufacturer characterises the foam glass boards as having extreme compressive strength and being suitable for highly loaded building structures. The Department of Railway Engineering and Track Management (DRETM) has been long-term researching the possibility of applying various thermal insulation materials (composite foam concrete, Liapor concrete, extruded polystyrene boards) to the sub-ballast layers. For the above reasons, an experimental field was constructed to validation a modified design of the sub-ballast layers with embedded foam glass boards. The paper’s objective was to verify whether the modified composition of the sub-ballast layers affects the increase of its deformation resistance. The assessment of the deformation resistance of the sub-ballast layers of the modified and standard construction was performed by a series of static load tests in the particular structural layers.

Keywords

• sub-ballast layers
• foam glass boards
• static load tests
• deformation resistance
• static modulus of deformation