Investigation of Material Improvements to Mitigate the Effects of the Abrasion Mechanism of Concrete Crosstie Rail Seat Deterioration
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 2
Abstract
Rail seat deterioration (RSD) continues to be identified as one of the primary factors limiting concrete crosstie service life in North America. RSD refers to the degradation of material at the contact interface between the concrete crosstie rail seat and the rail pad that protects the bearing area of the crosstie. Industry experts consider abrasion to be a viable mechanism leading to RSD. A lack of understanding of the complex interactions affecting the severity of abrasion has resulted in an empirical design process for concrete crossties and fastening systems. The objective of this study is to quantify the abrasion resistance of concrete rail seats by using a variety of concrete mix designs and other materials relevant to the rail industry. To simulate the abrasion mechanism of RSD, a small-scale test for abrasion resistance (SSTAR) was designed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Data obtained from the SSTAR will help the rail industry mechanistically design concrete crossties by improving the current understanding of the performance of various concrete abrasion mitigation approaches. Preliminary results show that abrasion mitigation approaches such as the addition of metallic fine aggregates (MFA), steel fibers, and the application of coatings improve the abrasion resistance of concrete specimens.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Technology Scanning Committee and the NEXTRANS Region V Transportation Center for sponsoring this paper. Additionally, the authors would like to thank VAE Nortrak and KSA for providing critical resources for the laboratory experimental work. A special thanks goes to Steve Mattson from VAE Nortrak for providing direction, advice, and encouragement. Many thanks to the members of AREMA Committee 30, including John Bosshart, Bill Holberg, Greg Grissom, Eric Gehringer, Rob Loomis, Ryan Rolfe, and Pelle Duong. Thanks to Greg Frech and Emily Van Dam for performing much of the experimental testing. This work would not have been possible without contributions from Tim Prunkard, Darold Marrow, Don Marrow, Marcus Dersch, Brandon Van Dyk, Brennan Caughron, and Samuel L. Sogin, all of UIUC. J. Riley Edwards has been supported in part by grants to the UIUC Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) from CN, CSX, Hanson Professional Services, Norfolk Southern, and the George Krambles Transportation Scholarship Fund.
References
American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA). (2012). Manual for railway engineering, AREMA, Landover, Maryland.
Bakharev, T. (1994). Microstructural features of railseat deterioration in concrete railroad ties, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
British Standards Institution (BSI). (1990). “Testing aggregates. Method for determination of aggregate abrasion value (AAV).”, London, U.K.
Chermant, J. (2001). “Why automatic image analysis? An introduction to this issue.” Cement Concr. Compos., 23(2–3), 127–131.
Choros, J., Marquis, B., and Coltman, M. (2007). “Prevention of derailments due to concrete tie rail seat deterioration.” Proc., ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Conf. and the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division, Spring Technical Conf., 173–181.
Dwyer-Joyce, R. S., Sayles, R. S., and Ioannides, E. (1994). “An investigation into the mechanisms of closed three-body abrasive wear.” Wear, 175(1–2), 133–142.
Van Dyk, B. J., Dersch, M. S., and Edwards, J. R. (2012). “International concrete crosstie and fastening system survey—Final results.” Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Frith, D. J., et al. (2004). “Hard aggregate resistance to studded tires.” Transp. Res. Record: J. Transp. Res. Board, 1874(1), 19–28.
Gencel, O., Sabri Gok, M., and Brostow, W. (2011). “Effect of metallic aggregate and cement content on abrasion resistance behaviour of concrete.” Mater. Res. Innovations, 15(2), 116–123, 〈http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article&issn=1432-8917&volume=15&issue=2&spage=116〉 (Nov. 14, 2012).
Hadchti, K. M., and Carrasquillo, R. L. (1988). Abrasion resistance and scaling resistance of concrete containing fly ash, Austin, TX.
Joh, S.-H., et al. (2010). “Nondestructive identification of freezing-induced cracks in concrete sleepers of high-speed railways in South Korea.” Transp. Res. Record: J. Transp. Res. Board, 2159, 98–109.
Kernes, R. G., et al. (2011a). “Investigation of the dynamic frictional properties of a concrete crosstie rail seat and pad and its effect on rail seat deterioration (RSD).” Proc., Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.
Kernes, R. G., et al. (2011b). “Investigation of the impact of abrasion as a concrete crosstie rail seat deterioration (RSD) mechanism.” AREMA Conf. Proc. 2011, American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-way Association (AREMA), Landover, Maryland.
Khayat, K. H. (2000). “Workability, testing, and performance of self-consolidating concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 96(3), 346–354.
Miller, R. B., and Wichern, D. W. (1977). Intermediate business statistics: analysis of variance, regression, and time series, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Mindess, S., Young, F. J., and Darwin, D. (2003). Concrete, M. Horton, ed., 2nd Ed., Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Moody, H. G. (1987). “Wheel load detector extends life of concrete railroad ties.” Transp. Res. Board of the National Acad., 257, 18–23.
Philip J. McQueen Corporation. (2006). Railseat abrasion of concrete ties—Summary report of the problem and existing solutions, San Rafael.
Shurpali, A. A., et al. (2012). “Laboratory investigation of the abrasive wear mechanism of concrete crosstie rail seat deterioration (RSD).” Proc., ASME/ASCE/IEEE 2012 Joint Rail Conf., Philadelphia.
Shurpali, A. A., et al. (2013). “Investigation of the mechanics of rail seat deterioration (RSD) and methods to improve rail seat abrasion resistance in concrete sleepers.” Proc., 10th Int. Heavy Haul Association Conf., February 2013, New Delhi, India.
Turkish Standards Institution. (2009). “Natural building stones—Methods of inspection and laboratory testing.”, Ankara.
Wiley, C. N. (1909). Chemical abstracts, Vol. 3, American Chemical Society, Easton, PA, 2495.
Witte, L. P., and Backstrom, J. E. (1995). “Some properties affecting abrasion resistance of air-entrained concrete.” Proc., ASTM Int., Vol. 51, ASTM, West Conshohocken, PA, 1141.
Zeman, J. C., et al. (2009). “Failure mode and effect analysis of concrete ties in North America.” Int. Heavy Haul Association Conf.
Zeman, J. C. (2010). Hydraulic mechanisms of concrete-tie rail seat deterioration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 2 • February 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 24, 2013
Accepted: Aug 19, 2013
Published online: Aug 21, 2013
Published in print: Feb 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Apr 27, 2014
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.