• Ngamkhanong, Chayut
• Sengsri, Pasakorn
• Ishida, Makoto

Abstract

Composite materials have recently gained significant attention for applications in railway industry. In recent practice, composite sleepers and bearers have been used for bespoke replacements of aged timber components in critical areas such as switches and crossings, bridge transom sleepers, and special locations with either stiffness or clearance constraints. A new ISO standard has been drafted to accommodate the need to carry out standardized tests to benchmark the performance of polymeric composite sleepers and bearers. This study highlights the test specifications in order to illustrate the profound insight into the test methods for polymeric composite sleepers in comparison with in situ conditions in real life situations. This study explores the effectiveness of the provision in the current design code for bending test methods under various support conditions. The results clearly demonstrate that the test methods cannot fully represent in situ track conditions.

Topics

• composite
• bending flexural test