Study on the Optimum Size of Railway Sleeper for Ballasted Track

In this paper, the effects of sleeper size on the cyclic deformation properties of railway ballast under the cyclic loading are discussed. The two-dimensional linear elastic FEM analyses were performed in order to investigate the effects ofsleeper size on the stress distribution in the ballasted track. Based on the results of FEM analyses, a series of full-scale cyclic loading tests using the various sleepers changed the length and height were performed. It is found that the track settlement in the state where a clearance gap is between the sleeper and the railway ballast can be explained the displacement amplitude and the maximum sleeper displacement speed up to the touching