Abstract
Prestressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties) are principally designed in order to carry wheel loads from the rails to the ground of railway tracks, as well as to secure rail gauge for safe train travels. Their design takes into account static and dynamic loading conditions. In spite of prestressed concrete crossties being most commonly used in railway tracks, there have always been many demands from rail engineers to improve the serviceability and functionality of concrete crossties. For example, signaling, fiber optic, equipment cables are often damaged either by ballast corners or by the tamping machine. There has been a need to re-design concrete crossties to incorporate cables internally so that they would not experience detrimental or harsh environments. Also, many concrete crossties need a retrofit for an automatic train control device and similar signaling equipment. In contrast, the effects of holes and web openings on the structural capacity of concrete crossties have not been thoroughly investigated. This paper accordingly highlights the experimental investigations into the effect of holes and web openings on the toughness and ductility of concrete crossties. The key outcome of this research is to enable a better decision making process for retrofitting prestressed concrete crossties with holes and web openings in practice.
Highlights
Railroad is a standout method amongst the most essential and broadly utilized means of transportation, conveying cargo, passengers, minerals, grains, and so forth
The holes and web openings are established on full-scale concrete crossties using a high-speed diamond-coring machine in order to minimize micro cracking in concrete
The holes and web openings undermine the strength, toughness and ductility of railroad concrete crossties. It is essentially important for track and rail engineers to assure that the modification or retrofitting of concrete crossties at construction sites is carried out in a proper manner
Summary
Railroad is a standout method amongst the most essential and broadly utilized means of transportation, conveying cargo, passengers, minerals, grains, and so forth. Railway prestressed concrete crossties have been utilized in the railway industry for over 50 years [1,2,3]. The railroad ties (called ‘railway sleepers’) are a main part of railway track structures. The crossties can be made of timber, concrete, steel or other engineered materials [4]. Concrete crossties were initially introduced many decades ago and at present have been introduced almost everywhere in the world. Their major role is to distribute loads from the rail foot to the underlying ballast bed. Railroad track structures often experience impact loading conditions due to wheel/rail interactions associated with abnormalities in either a wheel or a rail [1]. The practical guidelines for crosstie retrofit have not been well established and many attempts were carried out based on trial and error
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