An Experimental and Numerical Study on the Effect of Different Types of Sleepers on Track Lateral Resistance

Lateral resistance of railway track is one of the most important parameters in lateral stability. This parameter depends!on the conditions of different components of ballasted railway track (such as density of ballast layer, sleeper spacing, type of sleeper, etc.). From this perspective, type of sleeper has an important effect on lateral resistance. However in some conditions, in technical and economical investigations, using a special type of sleeper is not avoidable. In this research, concrete, wooden, and steel sleepers are studied using experimental and numerical analysis by finite element method. According to the experimental results, concrete sleeper B- 70 with 2.06 tons has the most lateral resistance among three types of sleepers. Steel and wooden sleepers with the amounts of 1.32 and 1.10 tons are in the next ranking. On the other hand, numerical analysis (modeled according to field conditions) shows that the lateral resistance of concrete, steel, and wooden sleepers is equal to 2.10, 1.36, and 1.15 tons, respectively.