• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.779-789
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• 2021

Cracks in railway sleeper are an inevitable condition and has a significant influence on the safety of railway system. Although the technology of railway sleeper condition monitoring using machine learning (ML) models has been widely applied, the crack recognition accuracy is still in need of improvement. In this paper, a two-stage method using edge detection and convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed to reduce the burden of computing for detecting cracks in railway sleepers with high accuracy. In the first stage, the edge detection is carried out by using the 3×3 neighborhood range algorithm to find out the possible crack areas, and a series of mathematical morphology operations are further used to eliminate the influence of noise targets to the edge detection results. In the second stage, a CNN model is employed to classify the results of edge detection. Through the analysis of abundant images of sleepers with cracks, it is proved that the cracks detected by the neighborhood range algorithm are superior to those detected by Sobel and Canny algorithms, which can be classified by proposed CNN model with high accuracy.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.231-242
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• 2012

This research work aims to develop an optimal design using Finite Element (FE) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) methods to replace the traditional concrete and timber material by a Synthetic Polyurethane fibre glass composite material in railway sleepers. The conventional timber railway sleeper technology is associated with several technical problems related to its durability and ability to resist cutting and abrading action of the bearing plate. The use of pre-stress concrete sleeper in railway industry has many disadvantages related to the concrete material behaviour to resist dynamic stress that may lead to a significant mechanical damage with feasible fissures and cracks. Scientific researchers have recently developed a new composite material such as Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyurethane (GFRP) foam to replace the conventional one. The mechanical properties of these materials are reliable enough to help solving structural problems such as durability, light weight, long life span (50-60 years), less water absorption, provide electric insulation, excellent resistance of fatigue and ability to recycle. This paper suggests appropriate sleeper design to reduce the volume of the material. The design optimization shows that the sleeper length is more sensitive to the loading type than the other parameters.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2012

Concrete sleepers are essential components of the conventional railway. As support elements, sleepers are always subjective to a variety of time-dependent loads attributable to the train operations, either wheel or rail abnormalities. It has been observed that the sleepers may deteriorate due to these loads, inducing the formation of hairline cracks. There are two areas along the sleepers that are more prone to crack: the central and the rail seat sections. Several non-destructive methods have been developed to identify failures in structures. Health monitoring techniques are based on vibration responses measurements, which help engineers to identify the vibration-based damage or remotely monitor the sleeper health. In the present paper, the dynamic effects of the cracks in the vibration signatures of the railway pre-stressed concrete sleepers are investigated. The experimental modal analysis has been used to evaluate the modal bending changes in the vibration characteristics of the sleepers, differentiating between the central and the rail seat locations of the cracks. Modal parameters changes of the 'healthy' and cracked sleepers have been highlighted in terms of natural frequencies and modal damping. The paper concludes with a discussion of the most suitable failure indicator and it defines the vibration signatures of intact, central cracked and rail seat cracked sleepers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.374-381
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• 2017

Concrete sleepers, installed on majority of railroad track in this nation can, if not maintained properly, threaten the safety of running trains. In this paper, an algorithm for automatically identifying cracks in a sleeper image, taken by high-resolution camera, is developed based on Adaboost, known as the strongest adaptive algorithm and most actively utilized algorithm of current days. The developed algorithm is trained using crack characteristics drawn from the analysis results of crack and non-crack images of field-installed sleepers. The applicability of the developed algorithm is verified using 48 images utilized in the training process and 11 images not used in the process. The verification results show that cracks in all the sleeper images can be successfully identified with an identification rate greater than 90%, and that the developed automatic crack identification algorithm therefore has sufficient applicability.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.517-522
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• 2021

In this study, the causes of damage to the concrete sleepers in a ballast track with under sleeper pads attached to the base of the sleepers installed in the sharp curved track(R=180m) of the urban railway bridge were analyzed. The damage types of concrete sleepers were investigated, and the correlation with track irregularity was reviewed. Also, stress generated in the concrete sleeper was reviewed through structural analysis. As a result, most of the cracks of the sleepers occurred in the section with severe track irregularity. In addition, as a result of the analysis, the stress generated in the track components and the sleepers was found to be reduce in the fastening system using the 4-anchor.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.85-89
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• 2014

The use of pozzolanic materials in concrete mixtures can enhance the mechanical properties and durability of concrete. By reactions with pozzolanic materials and calcium hydroxide in cement matrix, calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) increases and calcium hydroxide decreases in cement matrix of concrete. Consequently, the volume of solid materials increases. The pozzolanic particles also fill spaces between clinker grains, thereby resulting in a denser cement matrix and interfacial transition zone between cement matrix and aggregates; this lowers the permeability and increases the compressive strength of concrete. Moreover, the total contents of alkali in concrete are reduced by replacing cements with pozzolanic materials; this prevents cracks due to alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR). In this study, nanosilica is incorporated in cement pastes. The differences of microstructural compositions between the hydrated cements with and without nanosilica are examined using nanoindentation, XRDA and $^{29}Si$ MAS NMR. The results can be used for a basic research to enhance durability of concrete slab tracks and concrete railway sleepers.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.270-280
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• 2014

In this study, to examine the causes of cracks in continuously reinforced concrete tracks (CRCTs) and the main factors affecting cracking, a field survey on the status of cracks and crack patterns in the Gyeong-bu high speed line was conducted, and the crack patterns of CRCT due to the temperature difference between the top of the slab (TCL) and the bottom of the subbase (HSB) and the drying shrinkage of concrete were predicted by a nonlinear finite element model considering the structure of CRCT. The results of the numerical analysis show that cracks will be developed at the interface between the sleeper and the TCL, and under the sleeper due to the temperature difference and concrete shrinkage. This corresponds well to the crack locations found in the field. Also, it is found that the most significant factors are the coefficient of thermal expansion with respect to the temperature difference, and the drying shrinkage strain with respect to shrinkage. According to the results, the reinforcement ratio should be carefully determined considering the structures of CRCT because the crack spacing is not always proportional to the reinforcement ratio due to the sleepers embedded in the TCL.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.2 s.74
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• pp.80-88
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• 2006

In the present study damage behavior of resilient sleepers on concrete ballasts is analyzed. Cracks of resilient sleepers in a railway track system are concentrated on inside of blocks to which the tie bars are connected. Finite element analysis is performed by dividing a block into the straight section and the curved section according to the load condition of the resilient sleeper, and limited the interpretation within the range of resilience. In addition, the value of stress obtained from the interpretation was compared with the allowable stress of concrete to determine the safety. According to the result of numerical analysis, compared with the stress before unequal settlement, the tensile stress of the inside of the block increased significantly after the settlement considering the entire block, and the tensile stress of this part exceeded the allowable stress of concrete, so was undesirable in terms of safety. In reality, the arrangement of tensile stiffeners inside blocks connected to tie bars is improper in the design of resilient sleepers, and when unequal settlement occurs, tensile stress increases on this part and consequently causes cracking damage. It is necessary to arrange wire meshes or tensile reinforcing bars in a structurally safe way to reinforce the inside of blocks on which cracks are concentrated.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1514-1518
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• 2009

Recently, railroad construction has been increased all over the world and as the train is getting high-speeded, there has been a need for guaranteed safety, so that a requirement for heath monitoring techniques for destruction that generated by gradually accumulated damages is now increasing. Especially the rail is crucial part that contact with wheel directly and delivers the train's load to a sleeper. It needs a technique that can guarantee a safety by sensing the possible cracks. In this paper, when train's load applied to the rail, strain distribution that introduced to entire length of rail is monitored using optical fibre. Optical fibre is used as a medium for measuring the strain and BOCDA (Brillouin Optical Correlation Domain Analysis) system is organized for measuring the distributed variation that implied to optical fibre. Optical fibre is attached at lower flange where tension is maximized when the load of train applied to the rail and strain gauge is implied together to compare the accuracy of measurement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.613-625
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• 2012

Since railway bridge frequently have a chance of passing train load close to design load, it is necessary to reflect sufficiently fatigue property in early design phase for many structural details. Nevertheless fatigue cracks are reported partly in deck plate girder of railway steel bridge because of the weight and arrangement of axial load acting on railway bridge, the application of improper structural details for fatigue problem etc.. One of main cause for fatigue crack at the welded part of upper flange and web is caused by the eccentricity action of train load due to the difference of center to center spacing between the main girder supporting sleeper and the rail acting train load. For the existing deck plate girder of railway steel bridge, in this study, field survey, field measurement and a series of structural analysis were performed. In addition, the characteristics of structural behavior, the causes and repair/ retrofit of fatigue crack were examined in the target bridge.