Experimental Investigation on Effect of Winged Sleeper on Lateral Resistance of Ballasted Track

Abstract

Nowadays, the benefits of continuous welded rails and engineers’ tendency toward such types of tracks have increased the importance of railways’ lateral stability. For increasing railways’ stability, lateral resistance development mechanism should be reinforced. One of the methods for reinforcing the passive pressures’ mechanism at sleeper’s end and, therefore, increasing tracks’ durability is the utilization of winged sleepers. In this paper, lateral resistance of conventional and winged sleepers is examined and compared using laboratory and field tests. The tracks’ lateral resistant force was measured by single sleeper push test and track panel loading test. In the laboratory, single sleeper push tests showed 101% increase in lateral resistance in the winged sleeper compared with the conventional sample. In the field test, the test track was divided into three parts, namely conventional sleeper part, winged sleeper part and mixed part. The lateral resistance of each part was measured by LTPT. In the field test, 96% increase in lateral resistance was obtained. Winged sleeper panels and mixed sleeper panels showed 71% and 59% resistance increase, respectively, compared with the conventional panel. By using winged sleepers in tracks, lateral displacements decreased by increasing the shoulder and crib ballast’s volume through the passive pressure mechanism.