Static behaviour of glass fibre reinforced novel composite sleepers for mainline railway track
Article
Article Title | Static behaviour of glass fibre reinforced novel composite sleepers for mainline railway track |
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ERA Journal ID | 4188 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Ferdous, Wahid (Author), Manalo, Allan (Author), Alajarmeh, Omar (Author), Mohammed, Ali A. (Author), Salih, Choman (Author), Yu, Peng (Author), Mehrinejad Khotbehsara, Mojdeh (Author) and Schubel, Peter (Author) |
Journal Title | Engineering Structures |
Journal Citation | 229, pp. 1-11 |
Article Number | 111627 |
Year | 2021 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 0141-0296 |
1873-7323 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2020.111627 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141029620342280 |
Abstract | This study proposed three new railway sleeper concepts for a mainline track and investigated experimentally and numerically to understand their behaviours. These sleepers are fabricated with (a) a rubberised cement concrete block embedded in Particulate Filled Resin (PFR) and reinforced with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) bars (Concept-1), (b) cement concrete block reinforced with GFRP bars (Concept-2), and (c) GFRP pultruded sections filled with rubberised cement concrete and embedded in PFR (Concept-3). The structural behaviour of the railway sleepers is evaluated experimentally under five-point static bending and is verified by Beams on Elastic Foundation analysis. Moreover, an in-depth investigation of the in-track behaviour of sleeper was conducted using finite element simulation. Results show that the flexural properties of sleeper Concept-1 is equivalent to a recycled plastic sleeper, Concept-2 is between a recycled plastic and a softwood timber while Concept-3 is identical to a softwood timber sleeper. The results from this study generated new composite sleeper concepts from a price point that makes them commercially viable and meet structural performance to replace existing timber sleepers in a mainline railway track. |
Keywords | Fibre composite sleepers; Polymer sleepers; High performance; Cost effective design; Five-point bending test |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 400599. Civil engineering not elsewhere classified |
Byline Affiliations | Centre for Future Materials |
Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies, Australia | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q6272/static-behaviour-of-glass-fibre-reinforced-novel-composite-sleepers-for-mainline-railway-track
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