Mechanical properties of precast reinforced concrete slab tracks on non-ballasted foundations

This article deals with the mechanical properties of steel-reinforced concrete precast slab tracks on non-ballasted elasto-plastic foundations. To work out the spanning behavior of slab tracks, a FEM analysis was executed for discrete and continuous systems. At first, full-size slabs without foundation including solid and hollow-core specimens (with 30% weight reduction) were tested under centric static (monotonic) line loads, and load–deflection curves were extracted. Then, FEM results for zero foundation stiffness were verified with those of experiments, which were in good agreement. Original results include the effects of several parameters on the cracking load, ultimate load, and energy absorption of slabs placed on elasto-plastic foundations including the slab width, concrete tensile strength and load factor. Analyses revealed that mechanical properties in hollow-core sections are not so different from those in solid ones, and thus hollow-core sections are more efficient because of significant weight reduction.