Flextural Performance of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Ballastless Track Slabs
Abstract
Ballastless track slab offers excellent stability and durability and has been well accepted in high-speed railways worldwide. Rails are typically laid on precast concrete slabs that are subjected to dynamic load transferred from the rails. Cracks can be induced by shrinkage and mechanical loading in concrete, which accelerates the degradation and affects the performance of the track slab. As tens of thousands of miles of ballastless track are constructed, effective and efficient maintenance for the concrete slabs has become an issue. In this paper, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is proposed to fabricate ballastless track slab. UHPC is a superior fiber reinforced, cementitioius mortar, which has greatly-improved mechanical strengths and durability. A recently-developed UHPC is evaluated in terms of the flowability, durability, shrinkage, and mechanical properties. A functionally-graded slab design is proposed with the consideration of initial material cost. The slab is cast with two layers: a layer of conventional concrete at the bottom, and a layer of UHPC on the top. A three-dimensional finite element model is developed for ballastless track slab whose flexural performance is investigated and compared with that of slab made with conventional concrete. Concrete damage plasticity model is incorporated to consider the post-cracking behavior. The results indicate that the proposed UHPC is promising for fabricating ballastless track slab with superior performance.
Recommended Citation
W. Meng and K. Khayat, "Flextural Performance of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Ballastless Track Slabs," Proceedings of the 2016 Joint Rail Conference (2016, Columbia, SC), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Apr 2016.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1115/JRC2016-5814
Meeting Name
2016 Joint Rail Conference, JRC 2016 (2016: Apr. 12-15, Columbia, SC)
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
Concrete slabs; Concretes; Cracks; Durability; Dynamic loads; Finite element method; Plasticity; Precast concrete; Railroad engineering; Railroad plant and structures; Railroad tracks; Shrinkage; Ballastless Track; Concrete damage plasticity models; Concrete damages; Conventional concrete; Functionally graded composites; High - speed railways; Three dimensional finite element model; Ultra high performance concretes; High performance concrete; Ballastless track slab; Concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model; Finite element model; Functionally-graded composite; Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC)
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-0-7918-4967-5
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Apr 2016
Comments
This study was funded by RE-CAST Tier - 1 University Transportation Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology under grant No. DTRT13-G-UTC45 and the Energy Consortium Research Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology under grant No. SMR-1406-09.