Comparison study of crack propagation in rubberized and conventional prestressed concrete sleepers using digital image correlation

Abstract

Rubber concrete (RC) has been confirmed to be suitable for concrete sleeper production. This paper studies the cracking behaviour of conventional and rubber-reinforced concrete sleepers based on the results of an experimental program. The cracking behaviour in the pure bending zone was analysed up to a load of 140 kN. The crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) was accordingly measured using a digital image correlation (DIC) method. The DIC results show that the rubber prestressed concrete sleeper (RPCS) has a resistance against crack initiation that is 20% greater than that of the conventional prestressed concrete sleeper (CPCS) under the same loading condition; however, due to the higher crack growth rate of the RPCS, the first crack detected by the operator forms at 60 kN, which corresponds to a strength approximately 9% lower compared with the 65 kN load at which the first crack is detected in the CPCS. Before the first crack (60 kN), the RPCS has a deflection 35% lower than that of the CPCS, but after cracking, at loads of 80 kN, 100 kN and 140 kN, the RPCS has a deflection 15%, 4% and 24% higher than that of the CPCS, respectively.

Digital Image Restoration Based on Multicontour Batch Scanning

“…Due to the advent of the mobile Internet era and the medical information revolution, images and videos have become more and more popular, and image processing has received more and more attention and has developed into a promising discipline [5]. Images will inevitably be damaged in the process of acquisition and transmission, which undoubtedly brings great difficulties to researchers.…”

Crack Propagation Assessment of Time-Dependent Concrete Degradation of Prestressed Concrete Sleepers

“…The three-dimensional model of prestressed concrete sleeper has been developed in order to simulate the crack propagation at midspan. The static capacity experiment of prestressed concrete sleepers conducted by Jing is used for the verification of numerical crack results [22]. This paper reinforces the time-dependent design guideline for prestressed concrete sleepers to suit any local track.…”

“…The experimental static load-deflection response is presented for comparing with numerical results. The results of the negative bending moment test at midspan using the digital image correlation method (DIC) are used for validation [22]. Comparison between experimental and numerical load-deflection responses is plotted in Figure 4.…”

“…A number of centre bending moment tests, in accordance with EN 13230-2 (shown in Figure 6) conducted in collaboration with Beijing Jiaotong University, have been investigated to assess crack propagation of the Chinese Type III prestressed concrete sleeper [22,36]. Loading is applied at the midspan of the prestressed concrete sleeper and load surface is fitted by resilient pad.…”

“…This simulation focuses on the experimental results of cracking behaviour of the prestressed concrete sleepers. According to the experimental results, the ultimate required load at midspan is determined as failure load which is 140 kN [22,38]. It should be noted that both cracks propagate symmetrically in simulation, thus the experimental results of left crack propagation are used for crack model validation.…”