Effects of vertical and through holes on cyclic behaviour of railway concrete sleepers

Railway sleeper is the very important element in rail track structure. Nowadays, prestressed concrete is the most common type used in railway sleeper because of its good structural performance. The main duties of sleeper are to distribute the wheel load to the formation and keep the rail gauge. Most of current design codes for sleepers design techniques rely on allowable stresses and material strength. However, railway sleepers also experience high frequent cyclic load due to wheel-rail interaction. The cracking could occur in prestressed concrete sleepers due to cyclic behaviour and accumulation of fatigue could finally result in prestressed concrete sleepers’ failure. In addition, the concrete sleepers are often modified on construction sites to fit in other systems such as cables, signalling gears, drainage pipes, etc. This paper presents the results of the extensive theoretical and analytical investigation aimed at predicted cyclic behaviour on prestressed concrete sleepers with holes. It highlights the effects on cyclic behaviours of railway concrete sleepers. The insight of this paper can be used to evaluate the service performance and predict the cyclic behaviours of the concrete sleeper, as well providing design flexibility and broadening the design principle. The outcome of this study may also improve the rail track maintenance and inspection criteria, in order to establish an appropriate track condition monitoring network in practice.