Experimental load rating of aged railway concrete sleepers

Engineering Structures 76 (2014) 147–162

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Engineering Structures

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Experimental load rating of aged railway concrete sleepers

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2014.06.0320141-0296/� 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

⇑ Corresponding author. Current address: RailCorp – Track Engineering, Level 13,477 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. Tel.: +61 04 1373 6904.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.M. Remennikov), [email protected],[email protected] (S. Kaewunruen).

Alex M. Remennikov a, Sakdirat Kaewunruen b,⇑a School of Civil, Mining, and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australiab Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 13 November 2013Revised 18 June 2014Accepted 19 June 2014

Keywords:Prestressed concrete sleeperLoad ratingRemaining lifeExperimental impact testingFailure modeBallasted railway trackTransport infrastructureRisk and safety

a b s t r a c t

Prestressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties) are structural members that distribute the wheel loadsfrom the rails to the track support system. Over a period of time, the concrete sleepers age and deterioratein addition to experiencing various types of static and dynamic loading conditions, which are attributableto train operations. Recent studies have established two main limit states for the design consideration ofconcrete sleepers: ultimate limit states under extreme impact and fatigue limit states under repeatedprobabilistic impact loads. It was noted that the prestress level has a significant role in maintainingthe high endurance of the sleepers under low to moderate repeated impact loads. This experimentalinvestigation was aimed at static and dynamic load rating of aged railway concrete sleepers after service.Fifteen sleepers were extracted from a heavy haul rail network for testing using experimental facilities atthe University of Wollongong (UoW), Australia. The structural evaluation program included quasi-staticbending tests, dynamic impact tests, and tests to establish the current level of prestress in the steel wiresusing the dynamic relaxation technique. Two of the sleepers were evaluated for the level of prestressingforces in accordance with Australian Standards. Through diagnostic tests, the results of quasi-static bend-ing tests produced the in-track bending capacities of sleepers that can be combined with the momentsand forces anticipated over the next ten years to predict performance of the sleepers on a heavy haul coalline. The dynamic tests simulating the ability of concrete sleepers to resist extreme loading events due toheavy impact loads demonstrated that the sleepers in-track are likely to be able to resist the plannedincreased traffic without catastrophic failure over the next decade. Final conclusions suggest that thereshould be a routine test program every five years to ascertain the load rating of clustered sleepers andtheir fastening system in the heavy haul track system.

� 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Over the past 50 years, railway prestressed concrete sleepershave been used in rail networks around the world, especially inEurope and Japan. In Australia, concrete sleepers have beendesigned to withstand up to 40 tonne axle loads and used fornearly 35 years [1–3]. The railway sleepers (called ‘railroad tie’ inthe US) are a key structural element of railway track structures.The sleepers redistribute dynamic pressures from the rail foot tothe underlying ballast bed. Based on the current design approach,the design life span of the concrete sleepers is also considered tobe around 50 years [3–6]. Fig. 1 demonstrates a typical ballastedrailway track and its components. During their life cycles, railway

track structures experience static, dynamic and often impactloading conditions due to wheel/rail interactions associated withthe abnormalities in either a wheel or a rail [7]. Based on thisinvestigation, the magnitude of the dynamic impact loads per railseat varies from 200 kN to 600 kN, whilst the design static wheelload per rail seat for a 40-tone axle load could be only as muchas 110 kN nominally. The dynamic wheel load forms the basis fordesign and analysis of railway track and its components in an oper-ational environment with uncertainties [8–10]. In principle, theimpact capacity relates to design load (F*) for the limit statesdesign concept [11], taking into account both the static (Fs) anddynamic (Fi) wheel loads. There are three main steps in designingthe concrete sleepers. First, the design actions or loads are to bedetermined based on the importance level of the track (e.g.F* = 1.2Fs + 1.5Fi). Then, the design moment can be achieved byconverting the design load to sleeper bending moment envelopesusing an advanced dynamic analysis of railway tracks or anempirical design formulation [11–13]. Finally, the strength and

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Ballast & Subgrade

Sleeper Rail

Pad

Fig. 1. Typical components of railway tracks.

148 A.M. Remennikov, S. Kaewunruen / Engineering Structures 76 (2014) 147–162

serviceability of the prestressed concrete sleepers can be optimisedin accordance with the Australian Standard AS3600 [6] and otherdesign guidelines for concrete structures [14,15].

Recent investigations showed that a railway sleeper could haveexperienced multiple high-intensity impact loads, causing a rapiddegradation of its structural integrity and durability [16,17]. In-field, experimental and numerical data recorded by the Universityof Wollongong has revealed that the failure of a railway sleeper ismore likely be due to cumulative damage rather than due to aonce-off extreme event, which might occur due to the derailment[2,3]. It is important to note that, for prestressed concrete sleepers,the low magnitude but high cycle impact fatigue tends to be insig-nificant in comparison with the high magnitude but low cycleimpact fatigue [14,17–20]. In contrast, it was found from a criticalliterature review that there is no research investigation into loadrating or remaining life prediction of concrete sleepers. As a result,many assumptions have been made in practice that may lead toeither incorrect or inefficient asset management under constantlychanging operations. This practical issue has resulted in an initia-tive to investigate the existing condition of railway concrete sleep-ers and to develop a standard guidance for predicting theremaining life of such components. The strength and capacity ofconcrete sleepers depends largely on the residual materialstrengths (concrete and strands), the prestressing force and thebond between steel strands and concrete [17,18]. Over time, theconcrete sleepers experience diverse traffic loads from operationalactivities, and may have damage and cracks, also resulting in anadditional time-dependent loss in prestress level [21]. This paperpresents the experimental load rating results of railway pre-stressed concrete sleepers after a period of service life through avariety of structural testing programs.

This investigation arose from a planned expansion of the trafficon a heavy haul coal line in New South Wales, Australia. The railinfrastructure operator planned to double the traffic on that partic-ular coal line and was concerned about the ability of its existingrailway concrete sleepers to cater for the increased traffic loads.The sleepers on the coal line were manufactured and installed in1982–1984. A cluster of fifteen in-service concrete sleepers thatwere installed in the heavy haul rail network were extracted fromthe rail track and transported to the structures laboratory at theUniversity of Wollongong (UoW), Australia. Visual inspectionsand laboratory material testings were conducted at the initial stageof the project. Eight of the sleepers were evaluated for the staticbending capacities in accordance with Australian Standards. Threeof the sleepers were subjected to multiple high-intensity impactloads associated with the risk and the probabilistic loads on the

track. This paper presents experimental studies into the loadrating of in situ prestressed concrete sleepers and engineeringcharacteristics of construction materials used for manufacturingconcrete sleepers. In addition, dynamic impact load rating of theconcrete sleepers was carried out in order to underpin the failuremode analyses associated with operational track forces’ risk andprobability.

2. Experimental programs

2.1. Test specimens

Fifteen sleepers were extracted from the coal line and trans-ported to UoW for testing in accordance with Australian StandardAS1085.14 [4]. Table 1 shows the measured dimension of the slee-per specimens. It was found that cross-sections of the prestressedconcrete sleeper were optimised for specific load carrying capaci-ties at different functional performances for rail seat and mid span.

The rail infrastructure operator confirmed that the sleepers weretypical prestressed concrete sleepers from 1982. Design data detail-ing concrete strength, level of prestress, and design bendingmoment capacities were not available for a direct comparisonbetween the current design parameters and the original designparameters at the time of sleeper manufacture. However, report-edly from industry practices, the permissible stresses and designrestrictions of the concrete sleepers back in 1980s were very similarto those in existing standards [4,5]. There was not much change inthe standard design methodology and inputs over the past decades.The design characteristics as tabulated in Table 2 were thusadopted from AS1085.14 and AS3600, respectively [4,5]. Beforethe tests started, every sleeper was visually inspected and the majordimensions of the sleepers were then measured. The measurementswere taken at the rail seat and the centre of the sleepers. Since nooriginal drawings were provided, it was not possible to comparethe in-situ dimensions to the nominal dimensions. From the visualinspection, most of the sleepers suffered severe abrasion of the sof-fit surface. Some of the sleepers showed concrete spalling near thecentre, adjacent to the rail seat and at the sleeper ends. Table 3 sum-marises the physical conditions of the aged concrete sleepers.

In this experimental study, aged concrete sleepers wereselected for the load rating evaluation as displayed in Fig. 2. Theprestressed concrete sleepers are usually the main component ofthe standard-gauge, heavy-haul rail tracks. High strength concretematerial is used to cast the prestressed concrete sleepers, withdesign compressive strength at 28 days of 50–55 MPa, and the pre-stressing steels used are high strength with rupture strength of

Table 1Dimensions of the test sleepers.

Sleeper mark Rail seat (mm) Centre (mm)

Top width Depth Soffit width Top width Depth Soffit width

UOW1 205 210 240 210 165 245UOW2 202 215 245 212 166 245UOW3 204 195 242 212 152 240UOW4 205 215 242 212 161 243UOW5 203 215 241 211 164 245UOW6 201 212 249 210 171 249UOW7 201 208 240 210 165 244UOW8 200 195 238 210 158 240

Table 2Design properties of materials.

Materials Elastic modulus(MPa)

Compressivestrength (MPa)

Tensile strength(MPa)

Concrete 38,000 55 6.30Prestressing

tendon200,000 – 1700

Steel rails 205,000 – –

Table 3Physical conditions of aged railway concrete sleeper specimens.

Sleepermark

Physical condition of the sleepers

UOW1 Severe abrasion of bottom concrete surface. Labelled with3745083

UOW2 Severe abrasion of bottom concrete surface and concrete wasdamaged adjacent to the rail seat

UOW3 Very severe abrasion of bottom concrete surface. Three widecracks at the top surface adjacent to the mid-span

UOW4 Moderate abrasion of bottom concrete surface, and concretebetween the mid-span and rail seat was damaged

UOW5 Severe abrasion of bottom concrete surface and concrete wasdamaged adjacent to the rail seat

UOW6 Moderate abrasion of bottom concrete surface and a wide crackunderneath the rail seat

UOW7 Severe abrasion of bottom concrete cover, damage of theconcrete at the end of the sleeper causing one prestressing wirewas exposed

UOW8 Very severe abrasion of bottom concrete surface

A.M. Remennikov, S. Kaewunruen / Engineering Structures 76 (2014) 147–162 149

1700 MPa. Cored samples, drilled from the sleepers, were taken fora confirmation test, as per the Australian Standard AS1012.14 [22],as shown in Fig. 3. Although the common concrete strengthadopted for design is 50 MPa, it was found that condition of theconcrete at the test age of about 30 years (since 1982) had deteri-orated. The prestressing tendons are the chevron-patternedindented wires of about 5 mm diameter. From visual inspection,it could be observed that the high strength prestressing wires wereof high quality and thus the strength would not rapidly changeduring time.

2.2. Material testing

Core samples were taken from two sleepers. The cored samples,drilled from the sleepers, were taken to confirm the material prop-erties of the tested concrete sleepers, in accordance with the Aus-tralian Standard AS 1012.14 (1991) [22]. The standardrecommends avoiding the top layer of a concrete member, as itmay be of lower strength than the bulk of the concrete. Therecan be a strength gradient within the concrete, increasing withdepth below the surface resulting from curing and consolidatingeffects. In their manufacture, the sleepers are cast upside down,therefore coring from the bottom was avoided in this study.

The ends of the two sleeper specimens were cut clean from therest of the sleeper at the location of the rail seat, as shown in Fig. 4.The sleeper ends were then placed upright and the cores extractedfrom the freshly cut interior face. The concrete cores wereextracted from between the two rows of prestressing wires fromeach of the two specimens.

Once the cylindrical cores were extracted from the sleeper ends,they were checked for overall smoothness, steps, ridges andgrooves. The ends of the samples were trimmed and finished to asmooth flat surface with the length-to-diameter ratio maintainedat 2:1. An investigation into the actual residual strength of con-crete, using five concrete cylinders with a diameter of 55 mm, sug-gested that the average compressive strength was 44 MPa(±4 MPa) [21]. Compared with the design data in Table 2, thedeviation of concrete strength (about 10%) could be attribute topoor quality during manufacturing and construction, internalmicro cracking due to sudden transfer of pre-stressing anddynamic impact loads, and material deterioration in an aggressiveenvironment.

2.3. Experimental load rating tests

In accordance with the project task, eight concrete sleeperswere tested to failure under monotonically increasing quasi-staticloads and three concrete sleepers were tested for impact strengthsunder three different conditions of track moduli. Four concretesleepers were tested for static bending strength at the rail seat todetermine both the positive and negative cracking/ultimate railseat moment capacities. Next four sleepers were tested under sta-tic loading to determine the positive and negative, cracking andultimate moment capacities at the sleeper centre.

Resistance of the concrete sleepers to high-magnitude wheelimpact loads was investigated using the drop hammer facility atUoW. The sleepers were tested for impact strengths at the rail seatfor soft, moderate and hard track conditions to simulate on-tracksleeper behaviours with different track moduli.

The overall experimental program at UoW is summarised inTable 4. Sleepers for static and dynamic tests were arbitraryselected from the fifteen sleepers removed from the heavy haulcoal-line and shipped to UoW by the rail infrastructure operator.The details of the experimental setups developed for static,dynamic and prestressing tests are presented in Table 4.

2.3.1. Static testsA number of structural static tests were performed in order to

rate the load performance of aged concrete sleepers in accordancewith Australian Standards [4,5]. Fig. 5 shows the test setup for railseat vertical load tests – negative bending moment; Fig. 6 showsthe setup for rail seat vertical load tests – positive bendingmoment; Fig. 7 shows the setup for centre negative bendingmoment test; and Fig. 8 shows the test setup for centre positivebending moment test. These static tests are critical to the experi-mental load rating of the concrete sleepers to satisfy the require-ments of relevant standards for concrete sleepers [4,5].

(a) severe abrasion of concrete coverat the bottom surface of the sleeper UOW1

(b) concrete damage at the end of the sleeper UOW2

(c) severe abrasion of the concrete cover at the bottom surface of sleeper UOW3,

causing one of prestressing wires was exposed

(d) severe damage of concrete between the mid-spanand the support for the sleeper UOW4

(e) severe abrasion of the concrete coverat the bottom surface of sleeper UOW5

(f) a wide crack underneaththe rail seat of sleeper UOW6

(g) damage of concrete at the endand oneprestressing wire was exposed in sleeper UOW7

(h) very severe abrasion on the concrete coverat the bottom surface of sleeper UOW8

Fig. 2. Physical condition of concrete sleepers.


2.3.2. Impact testsThe UoW structures laboratory contains the largest drop ham-

mer facility for structural impact testing in Australia. The facilityhas the ability to generate an impact load by a free-falling massof 600 kg from the height of up to 6 m. Monitoring equipmentincludes high-capacity load cells for measuring impact loads upto 2000 kN, high speed laser displacement sensors, accelerometers,

strain gauges and high-speed camera. Fig. 9 presents a generalview of the drop hammer facility at UoW.

Generally, there are no standards for undertaking impact test-ing of concrete sleepers to determine their ‘impact resistance’.Extensive studies of impact resistance of concrete sleepers wereinitiated by Kaewunruen and Remennikov [1,2] and Kaewunruen[3] as part of research activities within the framework of the

Fig. 3. Preparation of concrete samples (left: coring machine; and right: cored concrete samples prior to compression testing).

Fig. 4. Freshly cut sleeper end ready for coring (SRA1).

Table 4Description of sleeper testing program.

Test # Type of test Parameters to beinvestigated

Sleepertype

1 Static (monotonicallyincreasing)

Rail seat – negativemoment

SRA2(UOW7,UOW8)


Rail seat – positivemoment

SRA2(UOW5,UOW6)


Centre – negativemoment

SRA2(UOW3,UOW4)


Centre – positivemoment

SRA2(UOW1,UOW2)

5 Dynamic (impact load) Rail seat – softtrack condition

SRA2(UOW9)

6 Dynamic (impact load) Rail seat – mediumtrack condition

SRA2(UOW10)

7 Dynamic (impact load) Rail seat – hardtrack condition

SRA2(UOW11)

8a Determination of level ofprestress in tendons [21]

Remainingprestress in wires

SRA2

9a Material testing [21] Concretecompressivestrength

SRA1

a Test data and results are available in [21].


Cooperative Research Centre for Railway Engineering in Australia.The methodology for impact testing of sleepers developed byKaewunruen [3] was utilised in this project to test three concretesleepers for impact strength at the rail seat. In this study, threesleepers were tested for impact strengths at the rail seat for the

prescribed values of track moduli 8, 30 and 120 MPa (soft, moder-ate and hard track conditions). It is well known that defining trackstiffness by track modulus is quite crude when considering slee-per’s response. This is because track modulus is calculated basedon rail support deflection in a cluster of components. This meansthat the change of rail type, sleeper spacing, sleeper type, fasteningsystem, rail pad, and formation will change track modulus.

2.3.2.1. Track moduli and laboratory support setup. In light of thecomplexities involved in experimental modelling of prescribed val-ues of track moduli, the experimental sleeper support conditionswere grouped into Soft Track (<20 MPa), Moderate Track(20–70 MPa) and Hard Track (100–120 MPa) for experimentalsimulation purposes.

Moderate track support condition was simulated following adetailed study of the sleeper support conditions in Kaewunruen[3] and the requirements of AS 1085.19 [5]. In this test, the trackballast bed was simulated by a series of rubber conveyor belts sup-porting the concrete sleepers and providing the support stiffnessequivalent to that of the real ballast bed. Using the results of vibra-tion analysis of the real track conditions, Kaewunruen [3] cali-brated the experimental support conditions to closely match thedynamic characteristics for this type of track conditions.

For this project, it was found that six layers of conveyor beltswould be equivalent to the stiffness of the track with moderatestiffness. The rail was placed on the rail seat and the rail pad wasnot included. This is because field observations suggested thatdeteriorated and worn rail pads may not provide any resilience[23–26]. The effect of rail pads on impact attenuation were pre-sented elsewhere [27,28]. This study simulated the worst case sce-nario with an ineffective worn rail pad where all the impact energyis totally absorbed by strain energy of the sleepers. As shown inFig. 10, the extreme cases of track moduli were replicated by usingballast (200 mm) over a thick layer of sand–rubber mix (50% byvolume of rubber crumbs) for the very soft track, and a thin ballastlayer (150 mm) on a shock mat placed directly on the concretestrong floor for the very stiff track.

Three concrete sleepers available for impact testing were inves-tigated for their response in hard, moderate and soft track situa-tions. The impact load generated by a falling 600-kg anvil wasapplied directly to the top of the rail. Since the direct impact ofthe steel impactor on the steel rail generates very short durationload impulses (1–2 ms), a softening media (3-mm thick neoprenepads) were placed on the rail top to control the duration of loadingpulses. It is known from the previous studies [1–3,7–13] that thetypical duration of impact load caused by wheel/rail abnormalitiesis about 5–10 ms. The load duration close to 10 ms was thereforeachieved in all the tests in this investigation.

Fig. 5. (a) and (b) – Rail seat vertical load static test for negative bending moment.

Fig. 6. (a) and (b) – Rail seat vertical load static test for positive bending moment.

Fig. 7. (a) and (b) – Sleeper centre vertical load test for negative bending moment.


Fig. 8. (a) and (b) – Sleeper centre vertical load test for positive bending moment.

Fig. 9. Drop hammer facility at UoW.


2.3.2.2. Load actions associated with risk and probability. The ratio-nale for selecting a magnitude of the impact load was based onthe outcomes of study by Leong [29] where the likely maximumimpact forces that would be applied to the rail above an individualsleeper were determined. Using the methodology presented in

Fig. 10. Modelling extreme cases of track support conditions

[29], the maximum likely incremental impact force for a1:400 year return period is 430 kN. The total wheel–rail force thatwould occur at 1:400 year event would be the incremental impactforce of 430 kN plus the upper 5th percentile of the static load dis-tribution, which would be 168 kN. The dynamism of static loads istheoretically and practically negligible. The static load was corre-lated to a factored load case (i.e. 1.2Fs) developed for limit statesdesign principle [29]. Thus, the total impact force has some reason-able probability of occurring over the next 10 years based on ‘bigdata’ recorded over few years, obtained from wayside systems. Itshould later be used for dynamic testing of the sleepers at rail seat,which is 168 + 430 = 598 kN [29].

It should be pointed out that in the above calculations the Dis-tribution Factor (DF) for the dynamic force is taken as 1.0 due tovery short duration of the loading pulses. It was assumed thatdue to high inertial characteristics of the rail track structure, theresponse time for bending of a substantial part of the track wouldbe significantly longer than the applied load duration leading tothe situation where only the sleeper directly under the impactwould be resisting the effects of impact loading.

Assuming the most unlikely loading scenario, that the sleeperswould experience, and even allowing for the greatly increased traf-fic planned for the heavy-haul coal line, the following testingregimes for the concrete sleepers were devised:

Step 1. Subject sleepers to impact load with a magnitude ofapproximately 600 kN and visually inspect the sleepers forcracking.Step 2. Repeat loading the sleepers with the 600-kN impact load10 times. This would effectively represent behaviour of thesleepers over a 4000-year period. Inspect the sleepers for crack-ing after each impact event.Step 3. Investigate behaviour of the sleepers under extremeloading conditions (with a return period of several millionyears) by applying loads with a magnitude in excess of 1000 kN.

: (a) very soft using sand–rubber mix, and (b) very hard.


For all dynamic tests in this investigation, the impact load timehistory was recorded by the high-capacity interface load cell con-nected to the high speed data acquisition system. The load timehistories were recorded at the sampling rate of 50,000 samplesper second (50 kHz) to capture all important features of thedynamic load waveforms. Fig. 11 shows the experimental setupfor the impact test. Note that the superposition principle wasfound applicable for analysis of sleeper’s structural behaviour[30–38].

3. Experimental results of static tests

3.1. Rail seat bending strength

The capacity of the heavy-haul, coal-line concrete sleepers wasinvestigated for both positive and negative moments acting at therail seat.

3.1.1. Rail seat positive moment testsTwo sleepers tested under rail seat positive moment test were

the sleeper UOW5 and sleeper UOW6. The sleeper UOW5 sufferedsevere abrasion of the concrete cover at the bottom surface and theconcrete was damaged adjacent to the rail seat. The concrete coverat the bottom surface of the sleeper UOW6 suffered moderateabrasion and there was a wide crack underneath the rail seat.Fig. 12 shows the load–displacement relationships for the sleeperUOW5 and sleeper UOW6 subjected to the rail seat positive

Fig. 11. Impact testing of coal-line concrete sleepers at rail seat.

Displacement (mm)

Tota

l loa

d (k

N)

0 4 8 12 16 200

100

200

300

400

500

600UOW5UOW6

Fig. 12. Load–displacement relationships for sleeper rail seat positive momentcapacity.

moment test. The load–displacement relationships for both sleep-ers were similar up to the maximum load capacity. The sleeperUOW5 shows slightly higher displacement than the sleeperUOW6 before they failed. For the sleeper UOW5, fine cracks startedto appear at the loading points after the applied load exceeded350 kN. The cracks propagated upwards as the loading increased.For sleeper UOW6, the existing crack propagated upward as theapplied load exceeded 350 kN. At about 550 kN, the load resistanceof both sleepers dropped due to the formation of diagonal shearcrack between the loading point and the support, as shown inFig. 13. After that, the load resistance of the sleepers increasedagain and reached maximum load capacity of about 580 kN beforethe sleepers failed due to crushing of concrete in compression andsplitting at the end of sleeper as illustrated in Fig. 14.

3.1.2. Rail seat negative moment testRail seat negative moment tests were performed on the sleeper

UOW7 and sleeper UOW8. The sleeper UOW7 suffered severe abra-sion of the concrete cover at the bottom surface and concrete wasdamaged at the end of the sleeper causing one of the prestressingwires to be exposed. The sleeper UOW8 suffered very severe abra-sion on the concrete cover at the bottom surface.

Fig. 15 shows the load–displacement relationships for sleepersUOW7 and UOW8. For both sleepers, a crack started when the loadreached approximately 150 kN. The crack propagated upwardwhen the loading increased. At about 370 kN, a diagonal crackappeared between the loading point and the support for the slee-per UOW7 (see Fig. 16a), causing the load resistance to dropslightly. The sleeper UOW7 reached maximum load of 420 kNwhere it failed by splitting at the end of the sleeper similar to slee-per UOW5 (Fig. 13). Sleeper UOW8 showed lower maximum loadcompared to sleeper UOW7 due to different failure mode. The flex-ural crack in sleeper UOW8 developed into a wide crack when theapplied load increased as shown in Fig. 16b. The sleeper reachedmaximum load of 350 kN before it failed by crushing of concretein compression as shown in Fig. 17.

3.2. Centre bending strength

The capacity of the heavy-haul concrete sleepers was investi-gated for both positive and negative moments acting at the centre.

3.2.1. Centre positive moment testsFig. 18 shows the load–displacement relationships for sleepers

UOW1 and UOW2 subjected to the centre positive moment test.Both sleepers had suffered severe abrasion of concrete cover atthe bottom surface. The load–displacement relationships for bothsleepers were similar up to 17 mm displacement. For both sleep-ers, fine cracks appeared underneath the loading points and themid-span at approximately 80 kN. The maximum flexural loadfor UOW1 and UOW2 was 99.5 KN and 99 kN, respectively. Afterthat, the concrete in compression started to crush and then causedthe sleeper to exhibit softening behaviour where the resistancegradually decreased with increase in displacement. Fig. 19 showsthe cracking and crushing of concrete for sleeper UOW1.

3.2.2. Centre negative moment testsCentre negative moment tests were performed on sleepers

UOW3 and UOW4. Sleeper UOW3 showed severe abrasion of theconcrete cover at the soffit surface, and there were three widecracks at the top surface. Sleeper UOW4 showed moderate abra-sion of the concrete cover at the soffit surface, and there was severeconcrete damage at the top surface between the rail seat and thecentre.

Fig. 20 shows the load–displacement relationships for sleepersUOW3 and UOW4. It shows that sleeper UOW4 has a higher

Fig. 13. Damage of sleepers under rail seat positive moment test (a) flexural cracks and diagonal crack for sleeper UOW5, and (b) flexural crack and diagonal crack for sleeperUOW6.

Fig. 14. Failure modes of sleepers subjected to the rail seat positive moment test (a) crushing of concrete in compression, and (b) end splitting failure.

Displacement (mm)

Tota

l loa

d (k

N)

0 4 8 12 16 200

100

200

300

400

500UOW7UOW8

Fig. 15. Load–displacement relationships for sleeper rail seat negative momentcapacity.


flexural load capacity than sleeper UOW3. For sleeper UOW3, flex-ural cracks started at mid-span when the load exceeded 85 kN(Fig. 21a) and it reached the maximum flexural load capacity of104 kN. For sleeper UOW4, fine cracks were observed at mid-spanwhen the flexural load reached about 110 kN, as shown in Fig. 21b.The maximum flexural load for sleeper UOW4 was about 138 kN.After reaching the maximum flexural load, the concrete in com-pression started to crush and the load resistance of the sleepersdropped as the displacement increased. Sleeper UOW3 showedlower maximum flexural load compared to sleeper UOW4 whichcould be attributed to the very severe abrasion of concrete coverat the bottom surface and existing wide cracks on the top surfaceof the sleeper prior to the testing. It also shows that severe damageof concrete between the mid-span and the rail seat in sleeperUOW4 had no significant effect on the load capacity of the sleeperas the flexural load was applied at the mid-span.

3.3. Summary of static load rating

The results from static tests on four concrete sleepers are sum-marised in Table 5, which presents the cracking moment and the

Fig. 16. Damage on the sleepers (a) a flexural crack and a diagonal crack on the sleeper UOW7, and (b) a wide flexural crack on the sleeper UOW8.

Fig. 17. Crushing of concrete in compression for the sleeper UOW8.

Displacement (mm)

Tota

l loa

d (k

N)

0 10 20 30 400

20

40

60

80

100

120UOW1UOW2

Fig. 18. Load–displacement relationships for sleeper centre positive momentcapacity.


ultimate moment capacities for the sleepers tested in this investi-gation. These results can be used for benchmarking assessments ofthe concrete sleepers on a future heavy-haul rail line (e.g. in Wes-tern Australia) when planning increased traffic on that line. It isimportant to note that sampling rate and number of sleepers isample based on the consistency and reliability of statistical TrackCondition Index (TCI) and Track Quality (TQ) history at the partic-ular track section [39–41].

4. Experimental results of impact tests

4.1. Rail seat impact strength, hard track support conditions

One heavy-haul sleeper was investigated for the rail seat ulti-mate impact resistance in the hard track support conditions, asshown in Fig. 22. High-speed camera was used to record the impactevent as shown in Fig. 23. New calibration of the parameters ofimpact testing was required since the track stiffness influencesthe dynamic response of sleepers. It was found that a 915 mm dropheight would be required to generate impact forces with a magni-tude of 600 kN. The load duration was controlled by the neoprenepads placed on the top of the rail and replaced for each loadingevent.

The dynamic loading programme included 10 consecutiveimpact load applications by the anvil dropped from the height of910–915 mm. Following 10 repeated applications of the load witha return period of 400 years (representing a 1:400 load magnitudethat is probabilistically designed to occur once a year [2,32]), thesleeper was later subjected to the impact force of 700 kN by drop-ping the anvil from a 1025 mm height. Table 6 presents theachieved load magnitudes and durations for every test andobserved damage.

A typical impact load–time history is shown in Fig. 24. Initialfine cracking was observed at the bottom surface of the rail seatafter four impacts. New fine cracks were observed at the bottomsurface of the rail seat after the 5th impact. These cracks did notpropagate with repeated impact load applications. No additionalcracking was observed at the sleeper rail seat after subjecting itto the impact force of 700 kN by dropping the anvil from a heightof 1025 mm.

Using Image-Pro Plus software for image processing, the graphshowing vertical displacements of the rail seat was produced, asseen in Figs. 25–28 collectively. It shows that the ballast aggregatesunderneath the sleeper were crushed by heavy impact loads, caus-ing significant vertical movement of the rail seat. This identified alimited bearing capacity of the ballast layer. Fig. 27 shows a crack-ing pattern in the sleeper at the end of the testing programme. Itcan be noticed that the final damage is minor and would not affectthe sleeper’s ability to resist vertical rail seat loads.

4.2. Rail seat impact strength, moderate track support conditions

One heavy-haul sleeper was investigated for the rail seat ulti-mate impact resistance in the moderate stiffness track conditions,

Fig. 21. (a) Cracking of sleeper at mid-span for UOW3,

Table 5Summary of experimental load rating results (static testing).

Type of test Sleepermarks

Cracking load(kN)

Cracking moment(kN m)

U(k

1 Centre positivemoment

UOW1 78 30.0UOW2 85 32.6

2 Centre negativemoment

UOW3 85 32.6 1UOW4 110 42.2 1

3 Rail seat positivemoment

UOW5 350 57.8 5UOW6 350 57.8 5

4 Rail seat negativemoment

UOW7 150 24.8 4UOW8 150 24.8 3

Fig. 19. (a) Cracking of sleeper at mid-span for UOW1, and (b) crushing of concrete at the top for UOW1.

Displacement (mm)

Tota

l loa

d (k

N)

0 10 20 30 40 500

30

60

90

120

150UOW3UOW4

Fig. 20. Load–displacement relationships for the sleepers subjected to negativemoment test at sleeper centre.


as shown in Fig. 29. New calibration of the parameters of impacttesting was required since the track stiffness influences thedynamic response of sleepers. It was found that a 350–380 mmdrop height would be required to generate impact forces with amagnitude of 600 kN. The load duration was controlled by the neo-prene pads placed on the top of the rail and replaced for each load-ing event.

The dynamic loading programme included 10 consecutiveimpact load applications by the anvil dropped from the height of350 mm. Following 10 repeated applications of the load resultingin the impact load of about 600 kN (1:400 return period), the slee-per was subjected to the impact load of 900 kN by dropping theanvil from a 750 mm height. The last two impacts, from the dropheights of 950 mm and 1050 mm, induced impact forces of1020 kN and 1200 kN, respectively. Table 7 presents the achievedload magnitude, load durations for every test and the observeddamage.

The impact load–time histories for selected impact events areshown in Fig. 30. No sleeper cracking was observed for all ten

and (b) Cracking of sleeper at mid-span for UOW4.

ltimate load capacityN)

Ultimate moment capacity(kN m)

Design moment capacity(kN m)

99 38 3899 38

04 40 4038 52

75 95 9580 96

20 69 5850 58

Fig. 22. Experimental modelling of hard track support condition.

Fig. 23. High speed camera for recording dynamic response of concrete sleeper.

Table 6Summary of impact testing (hard track condition).

Testno.

Drop height(mm)

Maximumload (kN)

Loadingduration (ms)

Observeddamage

1 910 606 14 No damage2 910 570 15 No damage3 915 615 13 No damage4 915 625 14 First minor

crack5 915 580 14 Crack

propagation6 915 590 14 No additional

damage7 915 637 13 No additional





damage

Time (sec)

Impa

ct lo

ad (k

N)

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1050100150200250300350400450500550600650

Fig. 24. Typical impact load time history for hard track condition.

Fig. 25. High speed recording of dynamic response of sleeper in hard trackcondition.


impact load applications (see Figs. 31–33). Some concrete scabbingwas observed under the rail after the impact load with a magni-tude of 900 kN. Additional concrete damage developed under therail after subjecting the sleeper to the impact force of 1020 kN bydropping the anvil from a height of 950 mm. Fig. 31 shows thecracking pattern in the sleeper at the end of the testing pro-gramme. It can be noticed that the final damage is minor andwould not affect the sleeper’s ability to resist vertical rail seat loadsas illustrated by Figs. 32 and 33.

4.3. Rail seat impact strength, soft track support conditions

One of the aged sleepers in this study was used to determinethe rail seat ultimate impact resistance in the soft track conditions.As justified above, the impact force of 600 kN with a durationabout 10 ms was chosen for impact testing of the concrete sleep-ers. The drop hammer machine was re-calibrated to achieve

repeatability of the parameters of impact forces in each impactevent. It was established that the 600 kg anvil is required to bedropped from a height of 800 mm to generate the impact force

Time (sec)

Slee

per v

ertic

al d

ispl

acem

ent (

mm

)

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

Residual displacementdue to ballast crushing

Fig. 26. Dynamic response of sleeper to impact load from high-speed recording(hard track support conditions).

Fig. 27. Minor cracking at rail seat starting from soffit surface.

Fig. 28. Crushing of ballast underneath concrete sleeper due to impact loads.

Fig. 29. Experimental modelling of medium track support condition.

Table 7Summary of impact testing (medium track condition).

Testno.

Drop height(mm)

Maximumload (kN)

Loadingduration (ms)

Observed damage

1 350 580 9 No damage2 350 628 9 No damage3 350 630 8 No damage4 350 628 8 No damage5 350 580 9 No damage6 350 560 9 No damage7 370 613 9 No damage8 370 625 10 No damage9 380 630 9 No damage

10 380 608 9 No damage11 750 900 8 Concrete scabbing

under rail12 950 1020 7 More concrete

damage under rail13 1050 1200 7 No additional

damage

Time (sec)

Impa

ct lo

ad (k

N)

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.090

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

600 kN (Tests 1-10)

900 kN (Test 11)

1020 kN (Test 12)

1200 kN (Test 13)Impact Velocity:4.5 m/s (1050 mm)4.3 m/s (950 mm)3.8 m/s (750 mm)2.6 m/s (350 mm)

0.1

Fig. 30. Range of impact loads applied to sleeper for moderate track condition.


with a magnitude of about 600 kN. The load duration was con-trolled by the neoprene pads placed on the top of the rail.

The dynamic loading programme included 10 consecutiveimpact events applied to the rail seat through the rail. Table 8presents the achieved load magnitude and duration for every test.It could be noticed that the dynamic load parameters showed verylittle variability for every test. After each loading event, the sleeper

Fig. 31. High speed recording of dynamic response of sleeper in medium trackcondition.

Time (sec)Slee

per v

ertic

al d

ispl

acem

ent (

mm

)

Slee

per a

ccel

erat

ion

(mm

/s2 )

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5-7.5 -450-5 -300-2.5 -1500 02.5 1505 3007.5 45010 60012.5 75015 90017.5 105020 1200

Displ (mm)Acceleration (mm/s)

Fig. 32. Dynamic response of sleeper to impact load from high-speed recording(moderate track support conditions).

Fig. 33. Rail seat area – concrete scabbing under the rail – at the end of impacttesting in medium track condition.

Table 8Summary of impact testing (soft track condition).

Testno.

Drop height(mm)

Maximum load(kN)

Loading duration(ms)

Observeddamage

1 800 625 22 No damage2 800 620 20 No damage3 800 600 21 No damage4 800 585 22 No damage5 800 590 22 No damage6 800 580 23 No damage7 800 570 23 No damage8 800 540 21 No damage9 850 505 23 No damage

10 900 630 21 No damage11 1200 840 15 No damage12 2000 1070 16 No damage

Time (sec)

Impa

ct lo

ad (k

N)

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.10

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

11001070kN

840kN

630kN

Fig. 34. Soft track impact load time histories.

Fig. 35. High-speed recording of sleeper response in soft track condition.


was carefully examined for the initiation of cracking. It was foundthat no cracking or other form of concrete damage occurred in thesleeper after 10 repeated load applications with a magnitude ofabout 600 kN.

For the next stage of testing, the sleeper was subjected to a ser-ies of extremely high impact loads simulating extraordinary load-ing events. The sleeper was initially subjected to a 1200 mm dropof the anvil that generated an impact force with a magnitude of

840 kN. For the last impact, the sleeper was subjected to an impactfrom a 2000 mm height and the impact load developed was about1070 kN. The impact load–time histories for selected impact eventsare shown in Fig. 34.

For the first 10 impact loading events, while the impact forceswere kept at about 600 kN, no visible damage to the concrete slee-per was observed. There was no visible damage in the sleeper railseat for the 1200 mm impact with the corresponding peak force of840 kN, as illustrated in Figs. 35 and 36. The final impact load inexcess of 1000 kN was generated by dropping the anvil from a

Time (sec)

Slee

per v

ertic

al d

ispl

acem

ent (

mm

)

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5-10-50510152025303540455055606570

Fig. 36. Dynamic response of sleeper to impact load from high-speed recording(soft track support conditions).


2 m height. This also did not cause observable damage to the railseat area of the sleepers. Based on the above observations, the con-crete sleeper resisted all impact events, including several extraor-dinary impact loadings, with no cracking thus demonstrating thehigh load carrying capacity of the concrete sleepers for resistingdynamic loads of high magnitude and short duration (see Figs. 35and 36)

5. Conclusions

This paper presents the experimental load rating studies arosefrom the planned expansion of the traffic on a heavy-haul coal lineby a railway operator and maintainer. There was concern whetherthe railway concrete sleepers would be capable of carrying theincreased traffic loads. Note that the concrete sleepers on that coalline were manufactured and installed in 1982–84.

For this investigation, fifteen actual railway concrete sleepersthat were installed in the heavy haul rail network were removedfrom the rail track (coal lines) and transported to the structureslaboratory at the UoW, Australia. Visual inspections and laboratorymaterial testings were conducted. The sleepers were evaluated forthe static and dynamic impact performances and the data wasbenchmarked in accordance with Australian Standards for pre-stressed concrete sleepers. Based on the critical literature review,it was found that the research investigation into residual conditionor remaining life prediction of concrete sleepers is inadequate. Thispaper firstly presents the experimental studies into the load ratingof in situ prestressed concrete sleepers using static and dynamicimpact test regimes. This investigation is an essential and inevita-ble contribution to the framework for estimation of the remaininglife of concrete sleepers, which is firstly presented in the openliterature.

The visual inspection of the concrete sleepers revealed thatthere were potential problems with durability of the sleepers. Con-crete spalling of sleepers due to tamping damage, poor construc-tion, and loss of concrete section due to abrasions were amongthe problems that could cause the rapid deterioration of strengthand serviceability. Through diagnostic static tests, eight aged con-crete sleepers were subjected to bending tests according to theprocedures prescribed [4]. Through a series of bending tests, thestrength of sleepers was determined at the rail seat and the sleepercentre. The experimental results of quasi-static bending tests pro-duced the in-track bending capacities of sleepers that can be com-bined with the moments and forces anticipated from the standarddesign concept over the next 10 years to predict performance ofthe sleepers on a heavy haul coal line.

Three concrete sleepers were tested for impact strength at therail seat for three values of the track moduli (8, 30, and 120 MPa)representing soft track, moderate and hard track supportingconditions. The sleepers were subjected to a series of impact loadapplications with magnitudes corresponding to frequencies ofoccurrence ranging from 400 years to several million years. Veryminor cracking was detected in the sleepers under the mostadverse loading conditions for all three track supporting condi-tions. This implies that the in-track sleepers are likely to be capableof resisting extreme loads generated by wheel and rail abnormali-ties without catastrophic failure under current traffic and evenwith increased traffic due to planned expansion on this line overthe next decade. It is also recommended from a risk managementframework (considering dynamisms of rail operations and trackmaintenance regimes) that the rail infrastructure operator exercisea routine test program every five years to ascertain the load ratingof clustered sleepers and its fastening system in the heavy haultrack system.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Australian Rail Track Corporation(ARTC), Sydney Trains (Wollongong Maintenance Depot), andROCLA for the support throughout this study. Valuable commentsand support from Drs. M.H. Murray (KCPM, Australia) and R.Blomsvik (Abetong AB, Sweden) are acknowledged. The authorswould like to thank the Structural Lab Manager Alan Grant forhis assistance during the experiments. Also, the second authorwishes to thank Australian Government’s Department of Innova-tion for supporting his Endeavour Executive Fellowships at Depart-ment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA, at John F. KennedySchool of Government, Harvard University, MA, USA, and atRailway Mechanics Centre, Chalmers University of Technology,Gothenburg, Sweden.

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Experimental load rating of aged railway concrete sleepers