Determination of Lateral Resistance of Girder-sleeper Fastener for CWR on Ballastless Plate Girder Bridge

Abstract

Recently, deteriorated ballastless railway bridges in South Korea have been modified by adding slabs and ballast to improve performance and extend their lifetime. However, this project has been delayed owing to a lack of budget, poor working conditions around the bridge, and the absence of traffic-blocking time. As an alternative, there is ongoing research on the direct installation of a continuous welded rail (CWR) to the bridge using an improved girder-sleeper fastener. To achieve this, the girder-sleeper fastener must have sufficient lateral resistance to prevent track buckling. In this study, to prevent track buckling, an appropriate lateral resistance for the girder-sleeper fastener was proposed by a series of parametric studies based on the additional axial stress of the rail on the bridge specified in the Korean design code. The parameters considered in this study were the span length, track radius, lateral displacement of the plate girder, and lateral resistance of the girder–sleeper fastener.