Feasibility Study of Material-modified Precast Element Used in the Railway Industry

Abstract

Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is a material whose utilization in the concrete industry has been rapidly increasing recently. The use of this specific material over conventional forms of concrete can lead to many benefits at some applications. The contribution is focused on the feasibility study of FRC use for precast irregular plates utilized in the railway industry. Nowadays, the existing irregular plates are made of conventional reinforced concrete. The aim of the study is to verify the feasibility of the modified plate made of self compacted fiber reinforced concrete (SCFRC) without conventional reinforcement instead of reinforced concrete. The whole procedure including the design and manufacture of the modified plate is described. The manufacturing technology of SCFRC is also demonstrated, as well as the numerical analysis of material-modified plate on a nonlinear model. Three different load conditions - dismantling, transport to the building site and intended use were analyzed. Besides, the informative material tests were conducted in order to obtain the properties of concrete composite at 28 days that was used for the manufacture. The static loading tests of the SCFRC irregular plate have not been performed yet as the applied research is in the phase of cost effective pilot study which has to only verify the feasibility of the modified plate.