Sustainability and recyclability of composite materials for railway turnout systems

To minimize the maintenance frequency as well environmental impact caused by growing number of railway materials reaching end their lives, appropriate sustainable management is inevitable prior to either turning them into wastes or leaving in landfill sites. This paper presents recent developments Fibre-reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) sleepers installed turnouts. It determines recycling and recovering processes this infrastructure system. The results recyclability (Rcyc) recoverability (Rcov) rates for turnout system are subject assumptions associated with data which taken from relevant sources (e.g. UNIFE). result a value 92.23% 93.50%, respectively. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that Mass Recovery Factor (MRF) has superior effect on Rcyc Rcov values compared Energy (ERF). In addition, study evaluates life-cycle impacts based calculation carbon emissions energy consumption over 75 year’s lifespan. Comparison whole conducted between FFU concrete sleepers. show sleeper emitted almost same emission material, but much more replacement mentioned