A Numerical Study on Structural Performance of Railway Sleepers Using Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC)

Materials

Moochul Shin¹  Sukhoon Pyo²  Younghoon Bae³ 

[1] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Western New England University, Springfield, MA 01119, USA;Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 44919, Korea;Korea Railroad Research Institute, 176 Chuldobangmulgwan-ro, Uiwang-si 16105, Gyeonggi-do, Korea;

关键词: ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC);    railway sleeper;    static bending test;    numerical simulation;    structural performance;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma14112979

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This numerical study investigates the structural performance of railway sleepers made of ultra high-performance concrete (UHPC). First, numerical concrete sleepers are developed, and the tensile stress-strain relationship obtained from the direct tension test on the UHPC coupons is used for the tensile constitutive model after applying a fiber orientation reduction factor. The numerical sleeper models are validated with the experimental data in terms of the force and crack-width relationship. Second, using the developed models, a parametric study is performed to investigate the performance of the UHPC sleepers while considering various design/mechanical/geometrical parameters: steel fiber contents, size of the cross-section, and diameter and strength of prestressing (PS) tendons. The simulation results indicate that the size of the cross-section has the most impacts on the performance, while the effect of yielding strengths of PS tendons is minimal among all the parameters. Engineers need to pay attention to efficiency and an economical factor when using a larger cross-section, since sleepers with larger cross-sections can be an over-designed sleeper. This study suggests an economical design factor for engineers to evaluate what combination of parameters would be economical designs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown