Vibration characteristic of micro-engineered crumb rubber concrete for railway sleeper applications

Railway track components often suffer from high aggressive loading and vibrating conditions of railway environment. In this study, the idea of improving structural material which can effectively absorb vibration energy is introduced to use for making railway sleeper. The environment-friendly concrete using crumb waste rubber tyres (425 and 75 Micron) as Micro-filler is presented. Six different types of concrete were designed and produced in accordance to British standard. Two experiments were conducted, which comprised of compressive strength and vibration testing, when the concrete has age of 7 and 28 days. The results illustrated that micro-crumb rubber concrete (CRC) can achieve the strength over 55 MPa (Complying with the requirement to design concrete sleeper) while maintaining the damping property at the excellent level. It was found that damping ratio of CRC is higher than plain concrete about 42%. These fundamental insights will encourage an innovative material application guideline for rail track engineers and managers in maintenance and construction of railway tracks and their components.