Experimental investigation of the effect of winged sleeper on lateral resistance of ballasted track

Document Type : Article

Authors

1 Center of Excellence in Railway Transportation, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, P.O. Box16846-13114, Iran

2 Center of Excellence in Railway Transportation, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, P.O. Box 16846-13114, Iran.

Abstract

Nowadays, the benefits of continuous welded rails and engineers’ tendency toward such types of tracks have increased the importance of railways’ lateral stability. For increasing railways’ stability, lateral resistance development mechanism should be reinforced. One of the methods for reinforcing the passive pressures’ mechanism at sleeper’s end and, therefore, increasing tracks’ durability is the utilization of winged sleepers. In this paper, lateral resistance of conventional and winged sleepers is examined and compared using laboratory and field tests. The tracks’ lateral resistant force was measured by single sleeper push test and track panel loading test. In the laboratory, single sleeper push tests showed 101% increase in lateral resistance in the winged sleeper compared with the conventional sample. In the field test, the test track was divided into three parts, namely conventional sleeper part, winged sleeper part and mixed part. The lateral resistance of each part was measured by LTPT. In the field test, 96% increase in lateral resistance was obtained. Winged sleeper panels and mixed sleeper panels showed 71% and 59% resistance increase, respectively, compared with the conventional panel. By using winged sleepers in tracks, lateral displacements decreased by increasing the shoulder and crib ballast’s volume through the passive pressure mechanism.

Keywords


References
 
1.        Zakeri, J. A., “Lateral Resistance of Railway Track”, In Reliability and Safety in Railway, X. Perpinya, Ed., INTECH Open Access Publisher, pp. 357–374 (2012).
2.        Zakeri, J. A., Mohammadzadeh, S., and Barati, M., “New definition of neutral temperature in continuous welded railway track curves”, Period. Polytech. Civ. Eng., 62(1), pp. 143–147 (2018).
3.        Kish, A., Samavedam, G., and Wormley, D., Fundamentals of Track Lateral Shift for High-Speed Rail Applications, United States. Federal Railroad Administration (2004).
4.        Le Pen, L. M. and Powrie, W., “Contribution of base, crib, and shoulder ballast to the lateral sliding resistance of railway track: a geotechnical perspective”, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F J. Rail Rapid Transit, 225(2), pp. 113–128 (2011).
5.        Profillidis, V. A., Railway Management and Engineering, Ashgate Publishing Limited (2014).
6.        Zakeri, J. A., Mirfattahi, B., and Fakhari, M., “Lateral resistance of railway track with frictional sleepers”, Proc. ICE - Transp., 165(2), pp. 151–155 (2012).
7.        Zakeri, J. A. and Talebi, R., “Experimental investigation into the effect of steel sleeper vertical stiffeners on railway track lateral resistance”, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F J. Rail Rapid Transit, 231(1), pp. 104–110 (2017).
8.        Sabaghi, S., “Investigation of Track Lateral Resistance with Anchored Concrete Sleepers”, BSc Thesis, Iran University of Science and Technology (2013).
9.        Jing, G., Qie, L., Markine, V., and Jia, W., “Polyurethane reinforced ballasted track : Review , innovation and challenge”, Constr. Build. Mater., 208, pp. 734–748 (2019).
10.      Pucillo, G. P., De Iorio, A., Rossi, S., and Testa, M., “On the Effects of the USP on the Lateral Resistance of Ballasted Railway Tracks” (2018).
11.      Indraratna, B., Nimbalkar, S., Christie, D., Rujikiatkamjorn, C., and Vinod, J., “Field Assessment of the Performance of a Ballasted Rail Track with and without Geosynthetics”, J. Geotech. Geoenvironmental Eng., 136(7), pp. 907–917 (2010).
12.      Darkhosh, M., “Field investigation on the effect of baby gabions on lateral resistance of ballasted railway tracks”, MSc Thesis, Iran University of Science and Technology (2014).
13.      Esmaeili, M., Zakeri, J. A., and Babaei, M., “Laboratory and field investigation of the effect of geogrid-reinforced ballast on railway track lateral resistance”, Geotext. Geomembranes, 45(2), pp. 23–33 (2017).
14.      Kabo, E., “A numerical study of the lateral ballast resistance in railway tracks”, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F J. Rail Rapid Transit, 220(4), pp. 425–433 (2006).
15.      Zakeri, J. A., Esmaeili, M., Kasraei, A., and Bakhtiary, A., “A numerical investigation on the lateral resistance of frictional sleepers in ballasted railway tracks”, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F J. Rail Rapid Transit, pp. 1–10 (2014).
16.      Sussmann, T., Kish, A., and Trosino, M., “Influence of Track Maintenance on Lateral Resistance of Concrete-Tie Track”, Transp. Res. Rec. J. Transp. Res. Board, 1825, pp. 56–63 (2003).
17.      Kerr, A. D., Fundamentals of Railway Track Engineering, Simmons-Boardman Books, Incorporated (2003).
18.      Klugar, K., “A Contribution to Ballast Mechanics”, Railr. Track Mech. Technol., A. D. Kerr, Ed., Pergamon Press, pp. 387–404 (1978).
19.      Montalbán Domingo, L., Real Herraiz, J. I., Zamorano, C., and Real Herraiz, T., “Design of a new high lateral resistance sleeper and performance comparison with conventional sleepers in a curved railway track by means of finite element models”, Lat. Am. J. Solids Struct., 11(7), pp. 1238–1250 (2014).
20.      Koike, Y., Nakamura, T., Hayano, K., and Momoya, Y., “Numerical method for evaluating the lateral resistance of sleepers in ballasted tracks”, Soils Found., 54(3), pp. 502–514 (2014).
21.      Esmaeili, M., Nouri, R., and Yousefian, K., “Experimental comparison of the lateral resistance of tracks with steel slag ballast and limestone ballast materials”, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part F J. Rail Rapid Transit, 0(0), pp. 1–10 (2015).
22.      Le Pen, L., Bhandari, A. R., and Powrie, W., “Sleeper End Resistance of Ballasted Railway Tracks”, J. Geotech. Geoenvironmental Eng., 140(5), p. 04014004 (2014).
23.      Zakeri, J. A. and Bakhtiary, A., “Comparing lateral resistance to different types of sleeper in ballasted railway tracks”, Sci. Iran., 21(1), pp. 101–107 (2014).
24.       Mundery, J. S., Railway Track Engineering, forth, Tata McGraw-Hill, new delhi (2009).