Discipline:

Engineering (Track & Civil)

Category:

Standard

Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design

ETD-02-03
Applicability
ARTC Network Wide New South Wales

Western Jurisdiction Victoria

Primary Source
ARTC Standard ETD-02-01 Concrete Sleepers (Medium Duty) Design

Document Status
Version
1.1

Date Reviewed
05 Jan 07

Prepared by
Standards & Systems

Reviewed by
Standards & Systems

Endorsed
Standards & Technical Services Engineer

Approved
Manager Standards & Systems 05/01/2007

Amendment Record
Version
1.0 1.1

Date Reviewed
10 May 06 05 Jan 07

Clause

Description of Amendment
First issue

4.2

Addition of text regarding tolerances for track gauge for new rail

ARTC. This document is the confidential property of Australian Rail Track Corporation.
Disclaimer This document is for internal use by the Australian Rail Track Corporation LTD (ARTC) only and may not be relied upon by any other party. ARTC: 1. does not accept any liability or responsibility whatsoever for this document in respect to any use or reliance upon it by any other party; and 2. does not provide any warranty as to the accuracy or reliability of this document.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design Contents

Contents
1 2 3 4 General Description ................................................................................ 3 Definitions .............................................................................................. 3 References.............................................................................................. 3 Design Requirements.............................................................................. 4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 5 6 7 8 General ............................................................................................ 4 Track Details ..................................................................................... 4 Sleeper Dimensions............................................................................ 5 Design Parameters ............................................................................. 5 Installation, Handling and Maintenance................................................. 5 System Performance .......................................................................... 5 Allowance for Retrofit ......................................................................... 6

Sleeper Marking...................................................................................... 6 Product Approval Requirements ............................................................. 6 Previous Installation Experience ............................................................ 6 Sleeper Performance and Tests in Accordance with AS 1085.14 ............. 7

Version 1.1

Date of last revision: 05 Jan 07 This document is uncontrolled when printed. See ARTC Intranet for latest version.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design General Description

General Description
This Standard specifies requirements for the design of concrete sleepers having resilient fastenings and insulators designed in accordance with ARTC Standard ETD-02-04 for use on track having nominal 30 t axle load or less. Concrete sleepers supplied for use in Australian Rail Track Corporation track must meet these design requirements. Concrete sleepers for special applications including multi-gauge tracks and turnout bearers are not covered by this Standard.

Definitions
Concrete sleeper A sleeper consisting of appropriately formed reinforced concrete which, when prestressed, includes the deformed reinforcing bars (tendons) which are stressed before casting the concrete. A component that prevents lateral movement of the rail foot and provides anchorage for the resilient fastening system. Elastic steel clips attached to sleepers and designed to engage rail flanges. These clips fasten rails to the sleepers providing lateral support. Standard resilient fastenings also generate toe load at the rail flange providing resistance to longitudinal movement, rail roll and rail lateral shift. Standard concrete sleeper cast in a single piece. Pertains to track having traffic not exceeding nominal 25 t axle loads nor more than 25 MGT annual traffic. Pertains to track having traffic not exceeding nominal 30 t axle loads nor more than 100 MGT annual traffic.

Cast in shoulder Resilient Fastenings

Monoblock sleeper Medium Duty Heavy Duty

References
The design shall be based on relevant Australian Standards and Codes of Practice and/or the referenced standards specified in this document. Referenced Standards include: AS 1085.14 Prestressed Concrete Sleepers AS 1085.19 Resilient fastening assemblies AS 1085.1 Rails ARTC Standard ETD-02-01 Concrete Sleepers (Medium Duty) - Design ARTC Standard ETD-02-04 - Resilient Rail Fastenings for Heavy Duty Concrete Sleepers - Design ARTC NSW Standard TDS 09 Mainline Track Geometry. ARTC NSW Standard TDS 13 Base Operating Condition Standards of Track Geometry ARTC NSW Standard TEP 01 Evaluation & Approval of Track Components Other internationally accepted and proven standards providing these are at least equivalent to AS 1085.14. All references relate to the latest Standard versions, including amendments and relevant superseding Standards.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design Design Requirements

4
4.1

Design Requirements
General
Sleepers shall be Monoblock type cast as pretensioned concrete designated Heavy Duty for use with axle loads up to 30 tonne. The design shall be in accordance with AS 1085.14 and/or the referenced standards unless otherwise specified in this document. Designs shall be checked by an independent competent organisation. Fastenings, cast in shoulders, pads, spacers and insulators shall comply with ARTC Standard ETD-02-04.

4.2

Track Details
The sleeper shall be designed for use on mainline track of 1435mm track gauge (measured 16 mm from the top of rail when assembled), assuming AS 1085, 47, 50, 53 or 60 kg/m rails or UIC 60 or UIC 54 rails are utilised. All running rails shall slope towards the track centre-line at 1 in 20. Tolerances for track gauge only apply to NEW rail. The following tolerances are applicable for heavy duty concrete sleepers: AS53/60kg/m rail = +4mm wide gauge, -2mm tight gauge (+4, -2) AS47kg/m rail = +6mm wide gauge, 0mm tight gauge (+6, 0) The railways on which the sleepers will be used include extensive lengths of sharp curves and steep gradients where sanding is applied for improved traction. Concrete sleepers are to be designed to minimise potential for soffit abrasion and rail seat erosion in this type of operating environment. Track configuration is detailed in ARTC NSW Standard TDS 09, Class 1XC track, with geometry maintained as per ARTC NSW Standard TDS 13. Sleepers will be installed in track both with and without signalling circuits and with and without electrification at 1.5 kV DC and may in future be electrified at 25 kV AC. Nominal maximum train speeds and loads may apply as detailed in Table 1.

30t Freight 80 km/hr

25t Freight 80 km/h

23 t Freight 110 km/h

21t Freight 115 km/h

19t Passenger 160 km/h

Table 1 Maximum Speeds in km/h

Track geometry assumptions (curvature, gradient, superelevation, cant deficiency etc) are to be in accord with Table 2, TDS 09 Mainline Track Geometry for Class 1XC track, except Max Ea may be 150 mm and Max D for Heavy Freight lines may be 100 mm. Other relevant track data includes: Electrical Insulation - Sleeper fastening assemblies and sleepers shall ensure a minimum electrical resistance between the running rails of 10 Ohms per track kilometre. Sleepers and cast in components shall be designed and manufactured to provide a minimum service life of fifty years based on annual tonnage of 100 MGT, nominal axle load of 30 t and 667 mm nominal sleeper centres.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design Design Requirements

4.3

Sleeper Dimensions
Sleepers should be designed to a preferred length of 2.5 m, a maximum depth at the rail seat of 250 mm and a width that provides a maximum pressure on ballast of 500 kPa when calculated in accordance with AS 1085.14. The width of the top of concrete sleepers at rail seats shall be not less than 160 mm plus any chamfer or rounding, or such greater width as may be required for specific rail pads (refer ETD02-04). The sleeper base surface shall be rough cast while the top and side surfaces shall be smooth to prevent retention of moisture and foreign material. Existing sleepers are typically 250mm wide at the base. This dimension is preferred but variations will be considered.

4.4

Design Parameters
Design parameters for the calculation of minimum sleeper capacity are as generally detailed in AS 1085.14, except that, in clause 4.2.3, the multiple of the impact factor, j, and the static wheel load, Q, shall be 300 kN. The load distribution factor shall be determined in accordance with Figure 4.1 of AS 1085.14 unless agreed otherwise.

4.5

Installation, Handling and Maintenance

Sleepers must be suitable for efficient transportation on rolling stock used with track laying machines and be stable for stacking on conventional flat-bed rolling stock or on-site. Sleepers must be suitable for installation by track laying machines and sleeper insertion equipment of a type used for partial resleepering. Trackwork fitted with these concrete sleepers must be suitable for maintenance with track maintenance equipment. Such equipment may include tamping and regulating machines, dynamic stabilisers, track adjustment jacks, track lining machines, fastening insertion/removal equipment, ballast shoulder cleaners and undercutting machines. For the purpose of track adjustment, rails must move freely on the rail seats. To achieve this, fastening systems must be able to be released for the adjustment and re-fastened on completion of the work.

4.6

System Performance
System performance requires the concrete sleeper assembly to function as part of the track structure. The sleeper must be able to transfer all the relevant track forces generated by train operations and the forces of rail thermal expansion and contraction to the ballast. The thermal expansion and contraction forces act on the continuously welded rails with a temperature range from approximately 10 C to 65 C about a nominal neutral temperature in the range of 25 C to 45 C. Design neutral temperature is typically 35 C to 38 C. Pads must possess sufficient edge stiffness to prevent the sleeper tilting (about its longitudinal axis) in order to resist longitudinal track forces arising from thermal expansion, contraction and rail creep. Pads shall be high-attenuation type as detailed in ARTC Standard ETD-02-04. Clips must provide enough deflection capacity to accommodate rail movement on the pad indefinitely without loss of toe load. The area of the sleeper bases must be adequate to ensure an even load distribution through the ballast bed up to the nominated maximum ballast pressure.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design Sleeper Marking

4.7

Allowance for Retrofit

The longitudinal centre line of the sleepers must have a vertical section of at least 50mm wide which is clear of any reinforcing steel (excluding the area of fastening). This is to allow for the attachment of ancillary equipment including train stops.

Sleeper Marking
The following marks shall be displayed on each sleeper, with markings being raised or indented to suit the manufacturer. Note that some are mandatory and some are optional: Mark of Manufacturer (Optional) The letters ARTC (Optional) Year of manufacture (Mandatory) Batch number (including a design type designator) (Mandatory)

Lettering and marks shall be on the upper surface of the sleeper between the rail seats.

Product Approval Requirements

All new sleeper designs shall be submitted to the ARTC Manager Standards and Systems for product approval. As part of the submission, the following data shall be provided by the supplier: One set of design calculations which should include the following. Rail seat load. Positive and negative resisting moments at the rail seat and at the centre of the sleeper. Fastening assemblies with all cast-in components. Tendon and/or reinforcement design stress including strain relaxation. Tendon and/or reinforcement bond stress including losses from interface bond/anchorage. Concrete strength including shrinkage creep and curing effects. The effects on sleeper strength of manufacturing tolerances (eg. concrete shape and tendon placement) and the design attrition allowance.

Independent design check of the design shall be undertaken by a competent designer, and details of this design check and information shall be provided. Two sets of fully detailed drawings are to be supplied for each combination of sleeper type, fastening assembly and rail size. The drawing should detail the following: Sleeper and fastening system dimensions including tolerances. Tendon type, size, material, number and location. Cast in Shoulder type, detail and material. Concrete mixture specification and properties.

The supplier will also be required to provide documentation of testing outcomes as specified in Section 7 and 8 below.

Previous Installation Experience

All components must be equivalent to existing designs that have been proven in track under conditions of service similar to those detailed in this performance specification and referenced documents. This should include corrugation, rail flow, head check, wheel burn and weld dip rail head conditions. Reference site details and contact persons able to objectively discuss sleeper system performance shall be provided.

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Engineering (Track & Civil) Standard ETD-02-03 Concrete Sleepers (Heavy Duty) - Design Sleeper Performance and Tests in Accordance with AS 1085.14

Sleeper Performance and Tests in Accordance with AS 1085.14

AS 1085.14 2003, Railway track material, Part 14: Prestressed concrete sleepers, Appendix B section 2 lists additional information to be provided by the purchaser. For completeness, the following lists each item and provides the required information or cross-refers to this standard or to referenced documents. a) AS 1085.14 applies. b) General information: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. c) Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC). The sleepers may be installed anywhere on ARTCs network. The nominal track gauge is 1435 mm. Refer to section 4.2 above. The maximum axle load will be 30 t The annual gross tonnage will be up to 100M. Speed will be a maximum of 160 km/h for XPT type passenger trains and 115 km/h for freight trains refer to section 4.2. Maximum grade is 1:30. Minimum curve radius is 200 m. Insulation to suit track signalling circuits is required. Track may be electrified to either 1.5 kV DC or 25 kV AC. The full range of Australian climatic conditions from alpine to desert may apply.

Track information: (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) ETD-02- 01 applies.

d) Sleeper design information: i. ii. iii. Refer to section 4.4 above Refer to section 4.2 above. The preferred sleeper dimensions are set out in Section 4.3. The cross-sectional dimensions shall be determined such as to meet the requirements of section 4.0 above. The positive and negative moments shall be determined in accordance with section 4 of AS1085.14. Other design requirements are identified in section 4.0 above and ARTC Standard ETD -02-04 and references and amendments thereto.

iv. v.

e) Fastening design information: (i) and (ii) refer to ETD-02-04 and references and amendments thereto. f) A general description of manufacturing procedures shall be provided.

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