The effect of sleeper interventions on railway track performance
The effect of sleeper interventions on railway track performance
The sleeper / ballast interface is an essential stage in the transfer of train loads from a railway track structure into the ground. Generally, only a small number of ballast grains support the sleeper base. The resulting localised contact stresses can be very high, especially for modern concrete sleepers on hard igneous ballast. This may result in damage to both sleepers and ballast, and reduce the stability of the interface. The paper presents results from cyclic loading tests carried out to explore the potential for performance improvement through the adoption of different sleeper types and modifications to the sleeper / ballast interface. Measurements of resilient performance, plastic settlement, sleeper / ballast contact number and area, shoulder movement, ballast breakage and attrition and the development of ballast longitudinal pressure are used to explore and explain the effect of each intervention. It is shown that twin-block sleeper types and under sleeper pads (USP) have the potential to reduce maintenance requirements and whole life costs.
Settlement, tiffness, repeated loading, ballast, railways, sleeper, bearer, tie
1-14
Abadi, Taufan
5e3abda7-80eb-4f39-921e-fae1f472d238
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Zervos, Antonios
9e60164e-af2c-4776-af7d-dfc9a454c46e
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
April 2019
Abadi, Taufan
5e3abda7-80eb-4f39-921e-fae1f472d238
Le Pen, Louis
4a38e256-d113-4bba-b0d4-32d41995928a
Zervos, Antonios
9e60164e-af2c-4776-af7d-dfc9a454c46e
Powrie, William
600c3f02-00f8-4486-ae4b-b4fc8ec77c3c
Abadi, Taufan, Le Pen, Louis, Zervos, Antonios and Powrie, William
(2019)
The effect of sleeper interventions on railway track performance.
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 145 (4), , [04019009].
(doi:10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0002022).
Abstract
The sleeper / ballast interface is an essential stage in the transfer of train loads from a railway track structure into the ground. Generally, only a small number of ballast grains support the sleeper base. The resulting localised contact stresses can be very high, especially for modern concrete sleepers on hard igneous ballast. This may result in damage to both sleepers and ballast, and reduce the stability of the interface. The paper presents results from cyclic loading tests carried out to explore the potential for performance improvement through the adoption of different sleeper types and modifications to the sleeper / ballast interface. Measurements of resilient performance, plastic settlement, sleeper / ballast contact number and area, shoulder movement, ballast breakage and attrition and the development of ballast longitudinal pressure are used to explore and explain the effect of each intervention. It is shown that twin-block sleeper types and under sleeper pads (USP) have the potential to reduce maintenance requirements and whole life costs.
Text
Sleeper interventions eprints
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 17 September 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 January 2019
Published date: April 2019
Keywords:
Settlement, tiffness, repeated loading, ballast, railways, sleeper, bearer, tie
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 423144
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/423144
ISSN: 1090-0241
PURE UUID: 3ab530c5-831d-4935-a232-4a593df0ddb1
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Date deposited: 19 Sep 2018 11:04
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:10
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