TY - CONF A1 - Taylor, G.R. A1 - Tan, R. A1 - O´Brien, A.S. A1 - Baeßler, Matthias A1 - Cuéllar, Pablo A1 - Lane, J.S. A1 - Evans, E. T1 - The use of physical model testing in the development of models for potential impact assessment on the UK rail network N2 - Most railway embankments in the UK were built in the Victorian era and are of end-tipped construction using materials (usually cohesive) excavated from adjacent cuttings, resulting in a clod-and-matrix structure. Historically, there has been a lack in understanding of the mechanical behaviour of such railway embankments. In the next decade railway traffic in the UK, particularly freight, is forecast to grow considerably. Consequently, there is a need to improve the understanding of how increases in rail traffic loading may influence the mechanical behaviour of railway embankments and thus track performance. The Rail Safety and Standards Board in conjunction with Network Rail is currently undertaking a programme of applied research into this topic. As part of these studies a programme of physical model tests has been carried out. Physical model tests can provide high quality data on system performance under a large range of loading conditions and geometrical configurations. The data can be generated rapidly, with test periods of weeks or months rather than years or decades. Additionally, boundary conditions are well-defined and controlled, compared with the complex situations encountered in full scale embankments in the field. This paper summarises the physical model test programme, the development of the test set-up, the tests themselves and the conclusions drawn. T2 - European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering CY - Edinburgh, Scotland, UK DA - 13.09.2015 KW - Railway embankment KW - Clay fill KW - Physical model testing PY - 2015 SN - 978-0-7277-6067-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1680/ecsmge.60678 SP - 361 EP - 366 AN - OPUS4-39374 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -