The engineering behaviour of ballast is an important factor to determine the stability and safety of railway tracks. This paper examines the stress–strain, shear strength, peak deflection stress and reinforcement strength ratio of different reinforcement materials and reinforcement locations in ballast track bed layers based on large scale static triaxial shear tests. The results show that geogrid and waste tyre reinforcement have a significant effect on the peak deviator stress of railway track bed layers and the stress–strain relationship is strain-hardened. The peak deviator stress and shear strength of geogrid reinforcement are greater under the same conditions compared with waste tyres. The reinforcement of geogrid and waste tires increases the shear strength of the track bed significantly. The more layers of geogrid reinforcement, the more energy is required for the deformation of the track bed. The energy required for deformation is greater in the centre of the waste tyre than in the other reinforced forms, and the energy required for deformation is minimal in the fully reinforced form. Excessive tyre reinforcement changes the stiffness of the track bed layer, leading to an increase in the settlement rate. The reinforcement strength ratio between geogrid and waste tyre increases significantly with the increasing of the confining pressure and reinforcement layers. Moreover, the reinforcement strength ratio of the geogrid is significantly higher than that of the waste tyre.
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