Effect of Extreme Climate on Topology of Railway Prestressed Concrete Sleepers

Abstract

Railway networks are exposed to various environmental conditions. It is thus critical that infrastructure components can tolerate such effects by design. Railway sleepers are a critical safety component in ballasted track systems. Prestressed concrete is currently the most common material for railway sleepers due to its superior advantages in structural performance, low maintenance, sustainability, and construction. In practice, many prestressed concrete sleepers are installed in harsh environments that are subject to various changes in climate. Environmental conditions are, therefore, one of the most critical phenomena affecting the time-dependent behaviour of prestressed concrete sleepers. Hence, the impact of climate changes on the serviceability of railway infrastructure needs to be thoroughly investigated. Temperature and relative humidity are crucial aspects that have not been sufficiently studied so far with reference to prestressed concrete sleepers embedded in track systems. This study aims to investigate the effects of extreme climatic conditions on the performance and time-dependent behaviour of prestressed concrete sleepers using contemporary design approaches. The issue concerning the effects of climate uncertainties on creep and shrinkage is rigorously investigated on the basis of both environmental temperature and relative humidity. The outcome indicates that environmental conditions play a vital role in the time-dependent behaviour of prestressed concrete sleepers. The insights will be essential for assessing the long-term serviceability of prestressed concrete sleepers that have been installed in railway lines and are subjected to extreme environmental conditions.

Parametric Studies Into Creep and Shrinkage Characteristics in Railway Prestressed Concrete Sleepers

“…The effects of various key parameters that have significant influences on creep, shrinkage strain, and loss of prestress are evaluated, in order to establish new practical insights for design, manufacture, and maintenance of railway concrete sleepers under uncertain settings (Kaewunruen et al, 2015(Kaewunruen et al, , 2016bSetsobhonkul et al, 2017;Li and Kaewunruen, 2019). The fundamental engineering properties of prestressed concrete sleepers used for calculation are based on previous investigations by Remennikov et al (2011).…”

Mode shape curvature squares method for crack detection in railway prestressed concrete sleepers

“…BS EN 13230 specifies the support conditions required for the 3-point bending test, instructing point supports at the railheads for both positive and negative bending tests. This standard is commonly used for performance benchmarking in industry [39][40][41][42][43]. The support must be 100 mm wide and made from steel with a hardness Brinell: HBW > 240.…”

Adapting Railway Maintenance to Climate Change

“…Climate risk assessment is a prerequisite for planning a roadmap to mitigate climatic impacts and identify critical infrastructure assets and vulnerable geographical locations. Several studies highlighted that temperature [2,[45][46][47] rainfall [39,48,49], humidity [49,50], snow [30,38], permafrost [38,51], storms [52], and sea-level rise [53] are the major climate parameters that could impact the railway infrastructure [29]. However, most of these climate parameters are indeed specific to geographical location and severity, and the occurrence of these events and changes may vary among countries and/or regions.…”