Investigation of using self compacting concrete in producing of prestressed concrete sleepers

Railway sleepers are track elements which carry the loads transferred from the vehicles to the rails as properly, supporting the rails, protect the gauge width and serve to withstand the horizontal and vertical movement of the rails. The use of prestressed concrete sleepers are increasing day to day due to the some advantages such as structural performance, good durability characteristics, high service life (60 years). In recent years, an innovative concrete type that has emerged in parallel with the developments in concrete technology is self-compacting concrete (SCC). Because SCC is more fluent than conventional concrete, requires minimum labor, economical, fast application, easy to fill molds, etc. so higher performance than conventional concrete. In this thesis, SCC designs with eight different granulometry were performed. Thus, the changes in the physical, mechanical and durability properties of the concretes were investigated. At the same time prestressed concrete sleepers production were performed. Also, the behavior of SCC specimens to against pre-stressing loads and changes in their load-bearing capacities were investigated.