Static and Impact Behaviour of Prestressed Concrete Indian and B70 Railway Sleepers

Railway sleepers play a crucial role in providing stability and support to railway tracks, ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the rail network. Sleepers distribute the load coming from the rails to the ballast. Prestressed concrete sleepers have advantages like high stability, strength, and durability compared to other types of sleepers. The rail seat region and the midspan region of the sleeper are the main critical zones in prestressed concrete sleepers (PCS), where damage typically occurs in each region due to high positive and negative bending moments, respectively. Throughout their lifespan, PCS may experience extreme loading conditions due to high-speed trains, high-magnitude wheel loads, and rail irregularities. Hence, selecting a suitable sleeper that performs better during harsh loading conditions becomes crucial. In the present study, two kinds of railway sleepers, namely, Indian sleepers, and B70 sleepers (German Rail Sleepers) are considered to assess the performance. Thus, the present work aims to experimentally investigate the behavior of two types of concrete sleepers under static and impact loading conditions. In this study Indian prestressed concrete sleepers outperformed B70 sleepers in both static bending and impact tests, demonstrating superior load carrying capacity, crack resistance, and energy absorption.