01632225

Component

Concrete crossties represent approximately 6.5% of the North American tie market share and they are commonly installed in high traffic and tonnage revenue service environments. In a past railroad accident, NTSB investigation revealed ties which were abraded at the bottom surface, some of them exposing the prestressed steel. These concrete ties were only 13 years old, which is less than 35% of their lifetime. The primary issue with bottom abrasion is that the damage is not visible from the surface, contributing to a lack of knowledge about the performance of concrete ties over time. Also there is limited information about why this problem starts, its severity, how common it is throughout the network, and how it could be prevented through design.With the objectives of gaining knowledge about the concrete tie abrasion state-of-the-art problem and the current scenario, a survey was conducted. The survey contained 4 components. (1) Preparing a list of questions based on the research interests, (2) Collecting contact information of the target population of experts who have conducted and/or are already conducting research on this topic, (3) Conducting conversations through email exchanges, phone conversations, and personal interviews, and documenting their answers (4) Analysis of the verbal answers. Survey results indicated the various factors contributing to the abrasion of concrete ties and highlighting the top three concerns. Additionally, various research strategies for assessing and understanding this problem were obtained for the survey.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AR060 Standing Committee on Railway Maintenance.

01618707

17-06121

English

12p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Photos; References; Tables

Abrasion; Prestressed concrete ties; Railroad ties; Surveys

Design; Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-06121

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 12:29PM