Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Influence Of Ballast Conditions On Flexural Responses Of Railway Concrete Sleepers, Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Alex M. Remennikov

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Railway sleepers in track systems are usually modeled using the beam on elastic foundation theory. In reality, the sleeper-supported ballast is of highly frictional granular media but does not provide any tensile resistance. This paper presents a finite element model of a railway sleeper in a track system, taking into account the tensionless nature of the elastic support. The highlight of this paper is the effect of ballast distributions on the flexural responses of railway sleepers in track systems. Using a finite element package STRAND7, the finite element model updating of the concrete sleeper was earlier developed and validated against …