Laboratory Evaluation of a New Device for Water Drainage in Roadside Slope along Railway Systems

Abstract

The majority of the existing railway systems in China, from roadside slopes to retaining walls, suffered from poor drainage induced failures. Recently, a new drainage device was proposed to tackle these problems. Preliminary field implementations indicated that the new drainage device could effectively remove groundwater from the surrounding soil without any clogging effect. However, at present, most existing designs are purely based upon the engineers' personal experience and judgement; there is no well-established design method to take full advantage of the device. In this study, a series of laboratory modeling tests were conducted to investigate flow rates, and the optimum installation angle of the drainage device. After that, the long-term performance of the drainage device and conventional perforated PVC pipe under multiple wetting-drying cycles was also evaluated and compared. The results indicate that during the constant head tests, the flow rates in the new drainage device initially increased with an increase in the installation angles of the drainage device from 0 ° to 15 ° and then decreased from 15 ° to 60 °. An inclination angle from 5 ° to 15 ° is recommended for this new drainage device when installed in the exiting railway cut slope. The clogging effect was not a primary concern for the applications of this new device. The proposed drainage device provides an alternative way to tackle the poor drainage problem in the exiting railway cut slopes and retaining walls.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Comments

This research was supported by the China Railway Corporation, China (No. 2015G006-F), the China Scholarship Council, China (No. 201706370160), The Central South University, China (No. 2016zzts080), the Hunan Science & Technology department, China (No. 2017SK2212), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51678572).

Keywords and Phrases

Geosynthetic materials; Groundwater; Laboratories; Polyvinyl chlorides; Railroads; Retaining walls; Roadsides; Clogging; Drainage devices; Geosynthetics; Installation angle; PVC pipes; Railroad transportation; Design; Drainage; Geosynthetics; Installation; Laboratory method; Pipeline; Railway; Roadside environment; Slope; Wetting-drying cycle; China; Perforated PVC pipe

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0266-1144

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2018 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2018

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