Structural behavior evaluation of Brazilian glulam wood sleepers when submitted to static load

This work is about the behavior evaluation of structural wooden sleepers through experimental stress analysis. The wood used for the glulam sleeper was Eucalyptus Citriodora with 9.9 kN/m(3) density. The experimental program includes the assay system assembly which simulates the real situation. The static loading assay determined the deformations, through strain gages (single-element gage, two-element gage and three-element rosettes), and the displacements along the sleeper, using linear displacement transducers. Applying the elasticity theory for orthotropic materials, tensions in various parts of the sleeper were determined until 200 kN load limit and compared with a numerical model that uses MEF. The results are acceptable. The Brazilian glulam wood sleeper has a elevated performance as the collapse maximum load, when compared with predicted formula values presented by several researchers, was 110% higher. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.