Lariviere, Bernard (2019) Investigation of Time of Concentration within a ballast track environment for efficient Storm Water Drainage. [USQ Project]
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Text (Project)
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Abstract
The rail industry in Australia, composed of several key rail operators, is heavily regulated around track design and safety by means of industry standards and their associated guidelines. Current guidelines for track drainage in the Australian rail industry, as based on industry standards, may be considered overly conservative when considering the Time of Concentration for storm water to pass through a ballast track environment. There may be some benefit by adopting a less conservative formula for calculating Time of Concentration to achieve cost savings in constructing rail infrastructure, where rail corridors would be more appropriately designed to efficiently capture storm water falling onto the ballast track environment.
The research paper considers whether Time of Concentration, as measured by the Rational Method, has been correctly utilized by rail industry standards within NSW, Australia. The aim of this project is to challenge NSW current rail drainage standards by using an alternative calculation for Time of Concentration of track drainage when simulating rainfall using a physical, purpose-built rainfall simulator.
The project encompasses a review of current NSW industry standards and guidelines in respect of track drainage; of the requirements for replicating rainfall when using rainfall simulators, and of track components used to make up a typical ballasted rail track profile.
A rainfall simulator is designed and developed in order to simulate rainfall and test Time of Concentration within a ballast track environment in a specific site location near Sydney.
Rainfall with known intensities is applied to a plot area representative of a typical rail track subsoil drainage system found in NSW as outlined in the Australian Standards Authority (ASA).
The results of the experiments are compared to standards for drainage design as outlined in the ASA standards. The justification for research lies in the possible benefits to designers and construction teams, as smaller pipes have much greater flexibility to navigate around the many utility service pits and structures commonly found in a rail environment. It is suggested that rail industry guidelines may need to be re-considered by key rail industry rail operators, in order to achieve time and cost efficiencies when constructing the ballast track environment.
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Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | USQ Project |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Civil Engineering and Surveying (1 Jul 2013 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Chowdhury, Rezaul |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Aug 2021 23:49 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Jun 2023 22:40 |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/43105 |
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