INVESTIGATIONS ON CONCRETE RAILWAY TIES SUFFERING FROM ALKALI-SILICA REACTION

This paper investigated the railway ties affected by alkali-silica rea ction in Shanghai and Zhengjiang railway stations. All these ties were produced by a plant in Beijing. The results showed that about 30% tie s produced in 1980-1981 are damaged when used in the stations, while 6 1-85% ties manufactured in 1985-1987 were cracked now. It was found th at load and wet and dry recycles could enhance the ASR cracking proces ses. Although compressive strength of concrete cubes cut from severely cracked tires are reduced 25%, static crack load of ties met the stan dard of class II. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.