Open AccessDamage of prestressed concrete railway sleepers and its impact on durability
Author(s) -
Aidas Jokūbaitis,
Gediminas Marčiukaitis,
Juozas Valivonis
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
modern building materials, structures and techniques
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
eISSN - 2029-9907
pISSN - 2029-9915
DOI - 10.3846/mbmst.2019.088
Subject(s) - durability , ballast , prestressed concrete , bearing capacity , structural engineering , damages , cracking , stiffness , engineering , forensic engineering , geotechnical engineering , civil engineering , computer science , materials science , database , law , political science , electrical engineering , composite material
Prestressed concrete railway sleepers are the most widespread sleepers due to their stiffness and high bearingcapacity. They transfer train induced loads from the rails directly to the ballast and therefore are the most important partof the railway structure. As railway traffic is constantly increasing with increasing loads and additional environmentaleffects take place it is necessary to ensure safety of the railway. Therefore, the present study focuses on durability ofprestressed concrete railway sleepers. This paper examines new sleepers and sleepers damaged during exploitation. Asall sleepers were manufactured at the same time the comparison of cracking loads and bearing capacity are provided.Additionaly, a difference between chemical composition of concrete samples from new and exploited sleepers is brieflydiscussed. Further, possible causes of damages of exploited sleepers are analyzed.