Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Flexural Behaviour of Composite Bearers in Railway Switches and Crossings

Composite bearers, which are the long crosstie beams, are safety-critical components in railway switches and crossings. Recent adoption of composites to replace aging timber bearers has raised the concern about their engineering performance and behaviour. Since the design and test standards for composite bearers are not existed, most performance evaluations are based on the flexural tests in accordance with the test standards for railway concrete sleepers. In this study, both numerical and experimental studies into the flexural behaviours of composite bearers have been conducted to improve the understanding into the resilience and robustness of the components under service load condition. The full-scale composite bearers are supplied by an industry partner. The full-scale tests have been conducted in structures laboratory at the University of Birmingham. 3D finite element modelling of the bearers has been developed using Strand7. The comparison between numerical and experimental results yields an excellent agreement with less than 3% discrepancy. The results exhibit that the composite bearers behave in the elastic region under service load condition. This implies that they can recover fully under the load, enhancing engineering resilience of the turnout systems.