APPRAISAL OF USED WOODEN RAILWAY SLEEPER

Replacement of wooden sleepers to prestressed concrete sleepers has markedas advancement in the railway sleepers industry in Malaysia. Despitesuperiority of these man-made composite sleepers, wooden sleepers still leadin terms of track performance qualities in particular on its natural elasticity.An initiative to investigate the degree of degradation of used wooden sleepersand the possibility of reusing them on low capacity railway track in Malaysiaas a means of reducing the overall track rehabilitation cost was undertaken.Used wooden sleepers were tested according to Australian Standard, RailwayTrack Material, Prestressed Concrete Sleepers (AS 1085:14:2003) on RailSeat Vertical Load Test and Centre Positive Bending Moment Test. Sixwooden sleeper samples were tested under the static load until failure.Benchmarking was carried on high strength prestressed concrete sleeper,tested according to AS 1085:14:2003: Rail Seat - Positive Moment Test. Theresults obtained showed the maximum load that the used wooden sleepers cancarry surpassed the design load of KTMB specifications and it is about 58%of high strength prestressed concrete sleeper. The maximum deflectionproduced by all used wooden sleepers is 20 mm showing that the sleepersmaintained their elastic behaviour. Modulus of Elasticity ranging from 21 to27 kN/mm2 of which within the standard value, indicating weathering processdoes not so much affect their stiffness. Most sleepers showed crack patternspropagated in the longitudinal direction. Toughness value is almost one halfof the high strength prestressed concrete sleeper. This study indicates thatthere is a potential of reusing the wooden sleepers for light loading of therailway track. Hence, an extensive study is recommended to be carried outunder fatigue loading condition.