Field Tests on Eco-Friendly Railway Precast Concrete Slab

Abstract

This study focuses on evaluating the field performance of a newly developed eco-friendly precast concrete slab track structure for railway/subway systems in Seoul, South Korea. Although Ballasted railway track structures are one of the most common track structures in the railway industry, they have some drawbacks including higher maintenance cost, un-uniform supports, and a high level of noise and vibration. However, a ballastless (slab-based) track structure system requires less maintenance and uniform support conditions, as well as several ballastless structure systems developed for high-speed trains. The Seoul Metro subway in South Korea has developed a ballastless reinforced concrete (RC) slab railway system using a type of conventional concrete. This study presents a ballastless precast concrete slab using a newly developed eco-friendly concrete, which can significantly improve structural performances and the manufacturability of a railway track structure system. This study evaluates the field performance of the eco-friendly concrete slab system deployed in one of the existing tunnel sections of the Seoul Metro subway system. A total of 10 m long slab sections including a 5 m long eco-friendly “ballasted track to slab track (B2S)” panels section and a 5 m long conventional B2S panels section are installed and monitored side by side. Field tests are performed to measure the level of noise, vibration, dynamic wheel load, rail displacement, and rail stress. The field measurements from the eco-friendly B2S section are compared to those of the conventional reinforced concrete slab track systems. The results show that the performance of the new B2S system using the eco-friendly concrete is comparable and/or superior to the conventional system.