Modelling railway prestressed concrete sleepers (crossties) with holes and web openings

Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Erosha Kahawatta Gamage, Alex Remennikov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
404 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Pre-stressing in concrete railway sleepers yields endurance property under high-cycle fatigue. This structural effect plays a positive role in durability of the sleepers. However, as a common practice, track engineers often generate holes or web openings in concrete sleepers to enable the accommodation of rail equipment cables and signaling equipment. This study aims to provide a principle understanding of the structural capacity and energy toughness of pre-stressed concrete sleepers with and without holes and web openings. It will investigate the design criteria and effects of holes and web openings on the structural capacity of concrete sleepers under rail loading. The finite element modelling for ultimate strength design of concrete sleepers will be highlighted in this study. Static experimental investigations have been firstly carried out to validate the finite element models using ABAQUS. The models are capable of predicting the failure planes and can help provide practical guidelines for the holes and web opening for track engineers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1240-1246
Number of pages7
JournalProcedia Engineering
Volume161
Early online date18 Oct 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
EventWorld Multidisciplinary Civil Engineering-Architecture-Urban Planning Symposium 2016: WMCAUS 2016 - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: 13 Jun 201617 Jun 2016

Keywords

  • Prestressed concrete sleepers
  • numerical modelling
  • web opening
  • hole
  • railway crossties
  • finite element model

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