Dynamic Performance of a Railway Subgrade Reinforced by Battered Grouted Helical Piles

When the temporary backfilled subgrade is not sufficiently compacted, the result is low stiffness of the track system. Excessive deformation of railway tracks under the action of freight trains will aggravate track wear and reduce service life. However, traditional reinforcement technology to increase the stiffness of the track system is sometimes limited due to requirements of working space, efficiency, and little disturbance of the normal operation of the existing railway. Battered grouted helical piles (BGHP) are a kind of strengthening technology that has little influence on the existing railway and high construction efficiency. This paper presents a field case study of the implementation of BGHP to reinforce the freight railway subgrade. The paper evaluates the effect of the BGHP on the dynamic response of the treated subgrade. The subgrade soil was initially characterized by cone penetration tests at one location before BGHP reinforcement. The subgrade dynamic deformation modulus was measured before and after BGHP installation. In addition, the acceleration and velocity time histories of the subgrade were monitored during the passage of a freight train before and after BGHP reinforcement. The field measurement showed that the vibration acceleration, velocity, and displacement of the subgrade all decreased while the dynamic deformation modulus of the subgrade increased after BGHP reinforcement. Further, the vibration level reduced remarkably, mainly in the frequency band of 44.7 to 56.2 Hz, and the distribution of the normalized accumulated energy of velocity and acceleration was significantly influenced after BGHP reinforcement. The findings from this case study are of practical value to the emerging application of the freight railway subgrade reinforced by BGHP.