NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE CROSSTIE AND FASTENING SYSTEM

Prestressed concrete crosstie provides a better alternative to traditional wood tie for its improved mechanical characteristics and durability, especially in meeting the performance demand due to increasing freight axle loading and high-speed passenger rail development in North America. As part of a study funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) aimed at improving concrete crossties and fastening systems for US high speed rail and joint passenger/freight corridors, this research is aimed at developing a detailed 3D finite element (FE) model of a crosstie and fastener system using ABAQUS. The FE model consists of concrete crosstie and fastener system based on actual product design, and is loaded through practical static loading after prestress release. Nonlinear material property models as well as component tangential and vertical interactions are incorporated into the model. Comparison focused on different loading scenarios is carried out using the model to further look into the impact on the performance of the track system.