Forest Drainage Products have commissioned Nottingham Transportation Engineering centre – NTEC – to carry out independent research for the evaluation of the load bearing behaviour of their Polybed drainage product range.
The research was carried out over a 4 month period. The experiments employed a full-scale excavated trench into which Polyagg, Polybed and Polysock products were placed, at the bottom, and then covered with various thicknesses of railway ballast and or a graded aggregate both compacted and uncompacted. Plate loading was then applied to simulate light van and road-going (HGV) truck traffic, displacements of the top of the product and the surface of the trench were monitored and recorded.
The product that was put forward for these series of tests contains the most vulnerable drainage pipe used within the Polybed drainage range – lightweight flexi land drain.
“Overall, this suite of tests has demonstrated that the structural
performance of the Polybed/Polyagg/Polysock products tested is suitable
for a range of applications in the rail, highway and parking application
fields. The tests confirm that the product range can provide a structurally
satisfactory alternative to traditional pipe and gravel based drainage
systems.”
