Abstract
This numerical study investigates the structural performance of railway sleepers made of ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC). First, numerical concrete sleepers are developed, and the tensile stress-strain relationship obtained from the direct tension test on the UHPC coupons is used for the tensile constitutive model after applying a fiber orientation reduction factor. The numerical sleeper models are validated with the experimental data in terms of the force and crack-width relationship. Second, using the developed models, a parametric study is performed to investigate the performance of the UHPC sleepers while considering various design/mechanical/geometrical parameters: steel fiber contents, size of the cross-section, and diameter and strength of prestressing (PS) tendons. The simulation results indicate that the size of the cross-section has the most impacts on the performance, while the effect of yielding strengths of PS tendons is minimal among all the parameters. Engineers need to pay attention to efficiency and an economical factor when using a larger cross-section, since sleepers with larger cross-sections can be an over-designed sleeper. This study suggests an economical design factor for engineers to evaluate what combination of parameters would be economical designs.
Highlights
In a railway track structure system, sleepers perform critical functions by transferring and distributing train loadings from rail to ballast or concrete slab
This numerical study focuses on investigating the performance of ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC) sleepers with respect to various design/mechanical/geometrical parameters
The key observations and findings of this research can be summarized as follows: 1. The developed numerical 2D-UHPC sleeper model was capable of representing the force and crack-width relationships
Summary
In a railway track structure system, sleepers (or ties) perform critical functions by transferring and distributing train loadings from rail to ballast or concrete slab. The critical components undergo repeated train loading and impact loading; the exact load transfer mechanism within the sleeper is still unclear due to uneven ballast support conditions and irregular surface conditions of rail and wheels. Concrete has been widely used for manufacturing sleepers in the world [2], and various attempts have been carried out to complement the brittle nature of the material. Cracks in concrete sleepers have been widely investigated and identified that it is mainly attributed to the material brittleness, under dynamic loadings [1,3]. Ramezanianpour et al [5]
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