Field Evaluation and Durability Analysis of an Eco-Friendly Prestressed Concrete Sleeper

While there have been various research activities to develop the green vehicles which reduce the energy consumption such as high-speed train, tilting train, light rail transit, wireless tram, and so on, researches on the eco-friendly railway infrastructure have been very limited to deal with the important social issue of reducing CO2 emissions. In this background, eco-friendly prestressed concrete (PSC) sleeper, using ground granulated blast furnace slag and rapid-cooling electric arc furnace oxidizing slag, has been recently developed to reduce the usage of cement and natural fine aggregate as main ingredients of the concrete. It was already found that eco-friendly PSC sleeper satisfied its static and dynamic performances required by international standards. In this paper, the field performance of eco-friendly PSC sleeper was evaluated in the operating line of conventional railway and its durability against extreme environmental conditions was performed in the laboratory as well. Steel slags (ground granulated blast furnace and rapid-cooling electric arc furnace oxidizing slag) are suitable alternative concrete ingredients to cement and natural fine aggregate for railway infrastructure applications, and the eco-friendly PSC sleeper can be an environmental as well as mechanical alternative to conventional PSC sleeper in railway.