Motion analysis of plate compactors in railway construction

Abstract

Plate compactors are often used in railway construction in the course of track maintenance, especially when using a track-bound rehabilitation method. In Austria the most common track-bound formation rehabilitation machine uses six plate compactors to ensure sufficient compaction of the newly laid layer of sub-ballast. Plasser & Theurer started field tests on a plate compactor in cooperation with the Institute of Geotechnics of the TU Wien in order to increase the efficiency of the plate compactors. During the field tests the motion behaviour of a single plate compactor was recorded by measurement equipment. The data obtained were processed and analysed afterwards. The analysis presented in this paper shows a dependence of the motion behaviour of the plate compactor on the operating configuration, but given a specific configuration a uniform and reproducible motion behaviour can be achieved. Therefore, the plate compactor fulfils one of the basic requirements for the development of a work-integrated compaction control.