Fracture toughness estimation of ballast stone used in Iranian railway

Ballast is a layer composed of crushed stone basically with diameters of 20-60 mm, on which sleepers and rails are set. Ballast is used to withstand vertical, horizontal and lateral forces applied on sleepers and to hold the line in operative conditions. Ballast deterioration induced by crashed stones is a major issue of track instability as the ballast layer quality depending on the materials used and their densities should be focused on. Therefore, ballast should be resistant against loads applied, and the fracture toughness of ballast stone is of great importance. For this purpose, the fracture toughness of two kinds of ballast stones used in Iranian railway, i.e. Gaduk (limestone) and Anjylavnd (andesite), is investigated experimentally in this paper. The quality of ballast stone is evaluated in different weather conditions. Numerical results shown that the Anjylavnd stone is more appropriate for rainy and cold weather when there is a probability of fracturing due to frozen water captured in ballast.