Ballast layer is a part of railway foundation that its behavior is affected by the properties of constituent particles. The shape of the particles, which affects ballast behavior, is an important characteristic that is represented by angularity and sphericity indexes. In this study, the macro- and micro-mechanical shear behaviors of railway ballast are investigated by using Discrete Element Method (DEM). For this purpose, a three-dimensional (3D) program based on DEM has been modified and verified with the experimental results to simulate different real particle shapes for the direct shear test. Eight assemblies with different particle shape indexes were prepared. The results showed that the shear strength of ballast layer increased significantly with an increase in the angularity index; however, the strength initially increased with increasing sphericity and then dropped in as the sphericity decreased in the assembly of particles. Also, micro-mechanical responses showed that particle shape affected the formation of shear band.

道渣层是铁路基础的一部分，其行为受组成颗粒特性的影响。影响镇流器性能的颗粒形状是一个重要的特性，由角度和球形度指标表示。在这项研究中，采用离散元方法（DEM）研究了铁路道ball的宏观和微观力学剪切特性。为此，已经修改并验证了基于DEM的三维（3D）程序，并通过实验结果对其进行了仿真，以模拟用于直接剪切测试的不同实际颗粒形状。制备了八个具有不同颗粒形状指标的组件。结果表明，随着角指数的增加，道with层的抗剪强度显着提高。然而，强度最初随着球形度的增加而增加，然后随着颗粒装配中球形度的降低而下降。而且，微机械响应表明颗粒形状影响剪切带的形成。