Influences of surface abrasions on dynamic behaviours of railway concrete sleepers

By nature, railway infrastructure is nonlinear, evidenced by its behaviors, geometry and alignment, wheel-rail contact and operational parameters such as tractive efforts. Based on our critical review, there exists no previous work that considers the degradation of railway concrete sleepers over time. In fact, the ballast angularity causes differential abrasions on the soffit or bottom surface of sleepers (especially at railseat zone). Furthermore, in sharp curves and rapid gradient change, longitudinal and lateral dynamics of rails increase the likelihood of railseat abrasions in concrete sleepers due to the unbalanced loading conditions. This paper presents a nonlinear finite element model of a standard-gauge concrete sleeper in a track system, taking into account the tensionless nature of ballast support. The finite element model was calibrated using static and dynamic responses in the past. In this paper, the influences of surface abrasions, including surface abrasion and soffit abrasion, on the dynamic behaviours of sleepers are firstly highlighted. The outcome of this study will improve the rail maintenance and inspection criteria in order to establish appropriate and sensible remote track condition monitoring network in practice.