Abstract
Although the loads transferred from a rail to a sleeper and from the sleeper to the ballast have been thoroughly investigated in the literature, little attention has been paid to the influence of superelevation deficiency (SED) on the loading pattern of the sleeper. A thorough field investigation into the effects of SED on the mechanical behavior of railway sleepers was carried out in this research. For this purpose, several load cells were installed above and beneath a sleeper in order to record the loads transferred from the rail to the sleeper and from the sleeper to the ballast, for a railway track with various SED levels. The results obtained were analyzed and a mathematical model for the loading pattern on the sleeper was developed. This model is a function of axle load, train speed, sleeper length and SED. Application of the proposed model in the design of sleepers indicates that SED can have a considerable impact on the sleeper design parameters. Consequently, the sleeper design method can be improved by adding correction factors to the conventional formulation of sleeper bending moments.
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