UIC Asia Workshop on Optimisation of PSC Sleeper Design (April 5-6, 2010) RDSO, Lucknow, India

The PSC sleepers were introduced on Indian Railways in the late 60s and since then have been accepted as essential component of modern track, to meet the requirements of the increasing traffic, heavier axle load and higher speed. Indian Railway is one of the largest users of concrete sleeper in the world. More than 100 million pre-stress concrete sleepers equivalent to 60,000 track kilometers have been produced in Indian Railways. Present rate of production is about 10 million per annum. Any economy at this stage in design and manufacturing process of concrete sleeper will be significant saving for Indian Railways. Concrete sleeper design differs from normal structural design in a way that the loading and support conditions cannot be assessed to high degree of certainty. This article discusses basic design requirement, design philosophy including loading condition, strength of material for production of concrete sleeper and special design of PSC sleepers developed so far by Indian Railways for different requirements.