Experimental study on static performance of ballastless track slabs reinforced by new FRP trusses

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to overcome the problem of the closed-loops created in the steel truss of the ballastless track slabs. In this paper, a new type of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) truss was fabricated and expected to overcome the above problem due to the excellent insulation performance of FRP. However, the static performance of the ballastless track slab reinforced by the new FRP trusses has not been studied. Therefore, five ballastless track slabs (one traditional slab and four new FRP trusses reinforced slabs) were constructed and tested under four-point loading. The test results indicate that: (1) the shear failure of the new FRP truss reinforced ballastless track slab was observed due to the high strength of the FRP bar, which is different from the bending failure of the traditional slab; (2) the new FRP truss has sufficient bearing capacity, stiffness and ductility, and can meet various mechanical requirements in its service stage; (3) the proposed modes can be well used to predict the bearing capacity, deflection and the crack width of this type of ballastless track slab.