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Today, the early deformation of sleepers has, directly and indirectly, raised railway maintenance expenditures. On the other hand, several types of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) products are widely used as a new effective method to prevent corrosion and fatigue problems of reinforced concrete elements. In this context, carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) products have priority over other FRP types to ensure the high capacity design of railway sleepers. Moreover, it will not be necessary to apply the pre-stressing method according to the experiments. Thanks to the practical production method without pre-stressing, many raw materials, labor, and energy savings are gained. Laminated form carbon fiber reinforced polyurethanes (L-CFRPU) are generally used today for earthquake strengthening and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete or steel structures. The use of L-CFRPU products for preliminary reinforcement in concrete railway sleepers has not been experimentally researched, yet. In this study, newly designed L-CFRPU reinforced (LCR) concrete sleepers were tested with EN 13230 incremental LUR (loading–unloading-reloading) tests, and the test results were compared with widely used concrete sleepers and calculated limit state design load for UIC railway lines. According to test results, newly produced sleepers show higher enough design load capacities and offering a longer service life. |
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