Experimental study on mechanical properties of new FRP trusses reinforced sleepers under the stacking condition

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to overcome the problem of the closed-loop created in the steel truss of the ballastless track slab. Therefore, a new type of FRP truss was proposed and fabricated. However, the mechanical performance of the sleepers reinforced by this new FRP truss under the stacking condition was not clear. In this paper, five different types of truss reinforced sleepers were fabricated and tested in the stacking state by the compressive test. The test results show that: (1) the new FRP truss reinforced sleepers still have sufficient stiffness and bearing capacity compared to the traditional sleepers, and the hand-made FRP joints not only have high strength, but also provide early warning of joint failure; (2) the height of the FRP truss has a significant effect on the failure modes, including joint failure after the web rod yielding (the height less than 89 mm) and the FRP truss buckling after the web rod yielding (the height greater than 108 mm); (3) the finite element model of the friction coefficient is set up can accurately predict the load–displacement curves of specimens under the stacking condition.