Improved railway track ballast and thermoelectric generation in concrete elements
This demo site is situated at one of the railway sections Maribor-Ruše or Brezovica-Vnanje Gorice.
The project aims to constructing improved railway ballasted track by re-using/recycling infrastructure components and significantly optimize energy use/harvesting.
Demonstration and validation of:
- New low-noise, low-vibration railway ballasted track and thermoelectric concrete: the project will develop rubber modified ballast to improve the environmental, mechanical and acoustic performance of the railway ballasted track, leading to:
- Positive environmental impact, with at least 80% reutilisation of construction materials within or across transport modes.
- Improved mechanical performance of new type of railway ballasted track in comparison to the conventional one.
- Drop in permanent deformation of the ballast track by more than 50%.
- Reduction of airborne noise by 3-6 dB (depends on the topography of the network) and at least 50% less ground vibrations.
- Thermoelectric and piezoelectric energy harvesting integrated within secondary raw material based elements, for optimization of energy use and validation of energy harvesting:
- Energy self-sustainable monitoring system
- Reduction in track maintenance costs by at least 30%.
