Bursting Effects in Prestressed Concrete Sleepers at Different Prestressed Levels

The railway sleeper is an important part of the railway track system, which distributes the wheel load to the substructure. The prestressed concrete sleeper is the most commonly used type around the world, which is usually designed for 50 years of service life. Prestressed concrete sleepers experience various environmental and loading conditions. Meanwhile, the material properties degrade with time. The premature failures of prestressed concrete sleepers could happen and result in a series of problems especially cracking. Tensile strength of prestressed concrete sleeper is much lower than compressive strength like other concrete structures. During service, impact loads could cause cracking in railseat or centre area of a prestressed concrete sleeper. Therefore, it is important to understand tensile stress at different prestressed levels. This paper presents a tensile stress assessment method for prestressed concrete sleepers. The outcomes of this paper will improve the concrete sleeper maintenance and inspection criteria.