Fibre composite railway sleepers

 

Testing of existing timber sleeper properties

In collaboration with Austrak Pty Ltd (Australia's largest railway sleeper manufacturer) CEEFC is developing fibre composite sleepers for the railway industry.

Fibre composite sleepers combine high strength with low weight, and provide flexibility to be drilled in-situ which makes competitive over other materials. This project is done in two stages.  Stage 1 consists of a scoping study to conduct a literature review of different types of fibre composite sleepers currently on the market and evaluate properties of existing timber sleepers, which was completed. Currently, stage 2 is underway, with the objective of developing and testing the performance fibre composite sleepers experimentally and analytically.

Project partners

Austrak Pty Ltd

CEEFC Project coordinator

Prof Thiru Aravinthan