Possibility of application of concrete sleeper with under sleepers pads

Abstract

One of the most sensitive segments of the railway infrastructure are certainly bridges. All steel grid bridges have wooden sleeper attached to the bridge structure and cannot change the height when maintaining the upper structure rails. It has become a practice to reconstruct or replace damaged bridges in the past by taking care that the track construction is separated from the bridge constructions. One way is that steel grid structures are replaced with reinforced concrete structures in the form of a trough or if the spans are larger with steel structures in the form of a trough. The standard classical track construction today is a gangway with concrete sleepers and a ballast of crushed stone material. Such tracks have reduced elasticity, which is particularly important at contact between the sleepers and the stone material. In order to reduce the negative impacts of vibration and thus extend the durability of railway track today, railways increasingly apply concrete sleepers with under sleepers pads. Tests have shown that with the installation of the under sleeper pads it is possible to achieve a quieter passage of the train over the substrates of different stiffness, thus reducing the possibility of damage to the track construction and the vehicle itself.