On the reinforcement of concrete sleepers by composite materials

The most important role of sleepers in a railroad system is conveyance of the train load from rail to the ballast. Since the sleepers are under complicated loading in real conditions, the first stage is static analysis of them. Future railway traffic will certainly be even faster than that of today, and at the same time the demanded load capacity of the trains will probably increase. This implies that the demands for concrete sleepers will increase and the need for reliable analytical tools will be extensive in the near future. The aim of this work is to increase the load capacity of the sleepers by means of composite materials and to make the railroad system ready for heavier and faster trains. The first step is applying a closed form solution. Then a finite element model of a concrete sleeper is established, in the nest step. Later a full-scale test of reinforced and non-reinforced sleepers is done, and at last, a validation of the finite element model through comparison with full-scale test results as well as closed form solution is conducted. The percentage of increased load capacity of sleepers and good agreements between the results make the work beneficial and reliable. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.