Capacity reduction in railway prestressed concrete sleepers due to dynamic abrasions

Railway prestressed concrete sleepers often experience significant aggressive loading conditions and environmental effects. Especially in sharp curves, lateral loading of trains in combination with incompressible hydraulic pressure aggravates the lateral oscillation and abrade the surface of sleepers right underneath the rail seats. Many investigators in the past have proposed various material models to improve abrasive resistance characteristics but those have been mostly applied to the new products using novel materials such as fibre-reinforced concrete. However, prestressed concrete sleepers have been used for over 50 years and they have worn over time. This paper highlights the capacity evaluation of worn sleepers, which will lead to predictive models that could be realistically applied to operation management of railway lines. This paper presents an investigation into the structural capacity reduction in worn railway prestressed concrete sleepers. RESPONSE2000 has been used to evaluate the residual capacity based on the compression field theory. The study results exhibit the level of wear and tear, which is critical to the integrity of sleepers and is required for immediate replacement. The improved understanding from this paper will help update the practical maintenance issues in railway industry.