An alarming volume of coal mining by-product in the form of waste rock, referred to as overburden (OB), is being dumped over vast areas of useful ground, leading to an ever-increasing demand for land space worldwide. Reusing this material in the form of industrial applications can provide an effective and environmentally sound solution for disposal of the unsightly and polluted stockpiles. The present study focuses on recycling the coal mine OB as an alternative to conventional subballast material in railways. A series of model tests have been conducted with the OB material as subballast layers of different thicknesses overlying a weak subgrade. Further, geocells of varying geometries have been used for additional performance improvement. The results portrayed that coal OB had the potential to be recycled as a subballast material in railways. Additionally, with geocell reinforced OB, the magnitude of vertical settlement and stresses in the track bed can be reduced significantly. Experimentally validated finite element models (FEM) were used to predict the lateral deformations and subgrade stresses in the track bed, which were also found to have exhibited substantial reductions with geocell reinforcement.

数量惊人的废石形式的煤矿开采副产品被称为覆盖层（OB），被倾倒在广阔的有用地面上，导致全球对土地空间的需求不断增长。以工业应用形式重复使用这种材料可以为处理难看和污染的库存提供有效且对环境无害的解决方案。本研究的重点是回收煤矿OB，以替代铁路中传统的压载物。已经对OB材料进行了一系列模型测试，这些材料是覆盖弱路基的不同厚度的子sub层。此外，具有不同几何形状的几何单元已用于其他性能改进。结果表明，煤制OB有潜力作为铁路道ball的再生材料。此外，借助土工格室增强的OB，可以大大减少垂直沉降的幅度和道床上的应力。经过实验验证的有限元模型（FEM）用于预测轨道床中的侧向变形和路基应力，并且发现土工格室加固后这些变形和路基应力已显着降低。