“Investigation on the Manufacturing, Installing and Maintenance Management of Prestressed Monoblock Concrete Sleeper in Egypt Railway Network”

Abstract

The present research has main objectives to; study precisely the mechanism of loads transfer from rail to sleeper, stresses of monoblock PCS B70 due to vertical loads, determine the suitable spacing for monoblock PCS B70 in Egypt Railway Network (ENR) due to vertical and longitudinal load (excluding longitudinal forces due to thermal effect) together as well as the manufacturing methods and recommending the best one. Also it aims to suggest sleeper’s maintenance techniques to avoid track’s longitudinal, transverse and horizontal defects Concerning manufacturing techniques, a field survey to Siegwart factory and a comparison between the carousel (short line) and long-line methods has been carried out. Two methodologies are proposed to determine the suitable spacing of mono-block prestressed concrete sleeper under vertical load and longitudinal forces: The first is to determine suitable spacing under vertical loads, a methodology within three steps run through selecting the proper rail and the calculation of the corresponding stresses with respect to speed. Another three steps has been used for PCS design through studying wheel load distribution and applying Zimmerman’s formula to calculate sleeper share. The first methodology showed the suitable sleeper design and spacing with respect to rail type, train speed, sleeper share and the corresponding maximum stress as well as the actual ballast crushing strength. The study also proposed the effective ballast depth with respect to sleeper spacing and share, train speed and rail type.