Use of rubber shreds to enhance attenuation of railway sub-ballast layers made of unbound aggregates

One of the approaches for solving the problem of induced vibrations in railways is by slightly modifying the materials that form the track. A study is presented of the attenuation capacity of mixes composed of granular soil and rubber shreds when used as sub-ballast (the layer located immediately below the ballast layer). Rubber shreds are obtained from scrap tyres, a troublesome waste material whose reuse and recycling is necessary. A series of mixes of granular soil and rubber shreds with rubber contents of between 1% and 10% are submitted to hammer impact tests to study their response to dynamic excitation. Results reveal that mixing rubber shreds with granular soil increases damping ratios, thus demonstrating the potential of the proposed mixes for attenuating vibration.