ÇEÇEN FERHAT (TR)
| CN112411269A | 2021-02-26 | |||
| US20210123191A1 | 2021-04-29 |
| 32 CLAIMS A monoblock-geometry concrete sleeper suitable for use in ballasted rail transportation systems operated with rail gauges of at least 1425 mm and at most 1445 mm, axle loads of at least 17 tons. f and at most 25 tons.f, and inter-sleeper- spacings of at least 50 cm and at most 65 cm that left between the center axes of the sleepers along the rail system route, and is used for preventing resonance damages and providing non-prestressed, no stirru ps-used, and short production, characterized by comprising; - A left primary compression reinforcement (4), which is placed in the leftupper lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 30 mm below the top of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A right primary compression reinforcement (6), which is placed in the rightupper lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 30 mm below the top of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A left secondary compression reinforcement (7), which is placed in the leftupper lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 75 mm below 33 the top of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A right secondary compression reinforcement (8), which is placed in the right-upper lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 75 mm below the top of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A left primary tensile reinforcement (9), which is placed in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 30 mm above the bottom of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, A right primary tensile reinforcement (10), which is placed in the right-lower lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 30 mm above the bottom of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A left secondary tensile reinforcement (11), which is placed in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 75 mm above the bottom of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - A right secondary tensile reinforcement (12), which is placed in the right-lower lobe of the sleeper rail seat section (5) shown in Figure 2, 75 mm above the bottom of the sleeper, taking into account its central axis as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface, without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; and as shown in Figure 1 , made of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1), a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns, - Cement-based concrete (21), which is having of at least 30 MPa and at most 40 MPa 28-day cubic compression strength per the current version of the European Norm of EN 206-1 , and has a height of 23 cm (13), top-width of 16 cm (14), bottom-width of 30 cm (15) cross-sectional sizes at the rail seats of the sleeper (5) shown in Figure 2, and has a height of 23 cm (17), top-width of 15 cm (18), bottom-width of 23 cm (19) cross-sectional sizes at the center point of the sleeper (16) shown in Figure 4, and has a length (20) of minimum 220 cm and maximum 230 cm shown in Figure 5. |
Technical Field
The invention is used in ballasted rail transportation systems operated with rail gauges of at least 1425 mm and at most 1445 mm, axle loads of at least 17 tons.f and at most 25 tons.f, and inter-sleeper-spacings of at least 50 cm and at most 65 cm that left between the center axes of the sleepers along the rail system route; and it relates to monoblock concrete sleepers preventing resonance damages and providing non-prestressed, no stirrups-used, and short production.
Prior Art
Today, rail transportation is increasing its share in transportation options worldwide. In addition to the cost and safety advantages, rail transportation systems are increasingly being used worldwide, which are also a more eco-friendly transportation option. Today, ballasted rail systems are the most common among the rail systems used in freight and passenger transportation between cities and countries. About 60% of these ballasted rail systems are operated with the characteristics of using sleepers between the rails- fastening systems and the ballast layer, rail gauges of at least 1425 mm and at most 1445 mm, axle loads of at least 17 tons.f and at most 25 tons.f, and inter-sleeper-spacings of at least 50 cm and at most 65 cm that left between the center axes of the sleepers along the rail system route.
Sleepers are one of the structural elements of the ballasted rail system and have crucial roles during the construction, maintenance, and operation of rail systems. Today, more than 3 billion sleepers are used worldwide, and more than 150 million new sleepers are required to be produced every year due to the fact that these sleepers are deformed in the early term for various reasons. This figure does not include the number of sleepers needed in newly built and modernized rail systems. Apart from this large financial burden, significant environmental damages occur due to unnecessarily producing these large numbers of sleepers. Apart from these, there is almost no time that can be allocated for maintenance or repair operations in modern railways, such as sleeper replacement. It is not possible to change a large number of sleepers in a few hours at night when there is no train service. Therefore, efforts are being made to develop the production of sleeper models with longer actual service life.
In the prior art, as mentioned in the standards, manuals, and guides available in the world, the method applied in the design of the sleepers is based on increasing the sleeper strength by increasing the static train loads with various safety coefficients. Therefore, the sleepers developed this way do not solve the resonance problems experienced in rail systems at the desired level. Almost all of the loads acting on the sleepers on railways are dynamic loads, and since a design method based on the impulse and frequency components of dynamic train loads has not been implemented in the current standards in the world, the solutions based on this problem cannot be clearly revealed from the known state of the technique by the experts in the technique. Therefore, under the influence of dynamic train loads involving one or more of the natural frequencies of the rail system elements, rails, fastening systems, sleepers, ballast, and infrastructure elements often resonate, and due to existing sleepers with insufficient resonance prevention capability, the actual service life of all rail system components is shortened. The most widely used type of sleepers in the world today is the prestressed concrete sleeper. This type of sleeper exhibits high strength during typical bending tests in the laboratory environment and is useful for the protection of steel reinforcements from corrosion. However, just as a steel wire in a stretched state causes more oscillation, the vibrations generated by the effect of dynamic loads in the rail systems gradually increase with the effect of these sleepers, causing damage to the sleepers and other rail system components.
Further, in the concrete sleepers available in the world, in addition to the obligation to use prestressing or stirrup reinforcement, there is also the obligation to use high-strength concrete, and there is a large amount of loss of raw materials, labor, energy, and time. The term prestress is technically used for a production technique that aims to protect the steel reinforcements from corrosion by applying a certain prestressing force and storing a certain compression force on the concrete before the service loads are applied to some or all of the reinforcements used in reinforced concrete elements, and by closing the cracks again when the service loads are removed. The term stirrup, on the other hand, is technically used for the winding reinforcements obtained by wrapping the construction steel, which surrounds the longitudinal reinforcements of the carrier system elements such as columns and beams in reinforced concrete structures. In other words, they are construction steels with smaller diameters surrounding the main reinforcements placed in the longitudinal direction inside the reinforced concrete columns and beams. Concrete sleepers, which are used in the world today, are produced with or without prestressing. Stirrups must be used in all of the non-prestressed concrete sleepers and in some of the prestressed sleepers. Therefore, there is a necessity to use prestressing or stirrups in all of the concrete sleepers that are used around the world today. By means of the invention, it has been surprisingly found that the obligation to use prestressing and stirrups, which have to be applied in concrete sleepers existing in the world, have been eliminated.
In addition, the lengths of existing monoblock concrete sleepers, which have been developed in the last 30 years, often cannot be reduced below 2.60 meters due to service life concerns. This situation increases sleeper costs as well as ballast and infrastructure costs on kilometers of rail routes. The reduction in cross sections of a few centimeters will cause great savings, especially for engineering structures such as tunnels, bridges, and viaducts. In addition, it is of great importance to use shorter and anti-resonance sleepers to continue to use the historical buildings (bridges, tunnels) with narrow crosssections in a healthy way.
In line with the above, in order to solve these problems in the technique, many sleeper variations were produced by the inventors by randomly changing various reinforcement types, sizes, positions, surface coatings, concrete strength classes, and sleeper geometries and then subjecting them to detailed modal analyses showing resonant resistance. Surprisingly, a prototype in which all the innovations specified in the Invention's Claims were applied was found to prevent resonant damage to the rail transport system elements by means of the synergy obtained by using all the innovations specified in the claims together. In addition, this invention surprisingly serves to remove the prestressing process, the obligation to use high-strength concrete or the use of stirrup reinforcement and long sleeper geometry applied in concrete sleepers in the world. Surprisingly, this prototype, which was produced much more easily and economically than its competitors in the world, was seen to meet the strength criteria equivalent to or superior to other concrete sleepers available in the world, according to the results of the experiments.
Today, there is a separate application in rail systems that are not included in the technical field of this invention or other types of sleepers. For this application, which is predominantly used in urban and/or ballastless rail systems, the term "continuous slab track" is used. As can be seen, these applications are a kind of infrastructure element, and the railway element developed in this invention is related to sleepers, which are a superstructure element. For this continuous slab track type infrastructure application, which has various types in the world, the term sleeper is not used in the railway literature, and it is excluded from the definition of the sleeper in this Description and its annexes. On the other hand, these applications of continuous slab track type are installed to rail systems close to or adjacent to each other in the locations where they are used. On the contradiction, the inter-sleeper-spacings (left between the center axes of the sleepers along the rail system route) of the Invention is at least 50 cm and at most 65 cm (minimum 20 cm and maximum 40 cm clear gaps). Therefore, the designs of these two different applications also differ, as the train load values on them are quite different. In other words, the design method applied to one is overly safe or unsafe for the other. The distance between the sleepers used in rail transportation systems will change the strength of the load on the sleepers, as well as cause great differences in terms of duration, frequency components, track stiffness, and damping characteristics. Therefore, the "slab tracks" applications produced with various geometries (such as floating slab tracks, frame type, ladder type, Rheda type, Zublin type, H type, and others) are completely different from the discontinuous sleepers regarding the loads acting on them, and the vibrations and dynamic effects emitted by them, and the loads and vibrations transmitted to the ground by them. Therefore, an expert in the technique, when developing a discontinuous sleeper model for preventing resonance damages seen in rail system elements such as in this invention, will not take as an example the above-mentioned slab track applications. For this reason, such slab track type "infrastructure" products, apart from many other differences, differ in these respects from this Invention, which is a ballasted rail system "superstructure" element with discontinuous (spaced) use and monoblock geometry. Therefore, it would not be correct to consider such applications alone or "together with other monoblock/slab track type Inventions" in examining the novelty and invention step of this Invention. New Generation H Type Carbon and I Or Boron Fiber Reinforced Polymer Reinforced Concrete Railway Sleeper with application number 2019/20386 registered in the database of the Turkish Patent Office or the inventions with patent application number PL20060119154T 20060818, CN201310585865 20131120, US20060816429 20060310, CAD239281 00000000, GB20160016979 20161006, GB20110018163 20111021 , GB19750023807 19750602 mention this slab track type inventions. Unlike these Inventions, this Invention has a sleeper model with monoblock geometry that is intended to prevent resonant damage to rail transport system elements with specific use and positioning of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate materials having a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns, a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm, a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm, all surfaces coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns; without prestressing and stirrup reinforcement use; inside a cement-based concrete, which is having of at least 30 MPa and at most 40 MPa compression strength. That is, the starting points of the said documents and the products and product geometries are completely different from each other.
Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a composite material produced by placing high- strength fiber in a resin polymer matrix at various angles and at least 20% by weight by applying pultrusion, prepreg, and other methods. Polyurethane, vinyl ester, epoxy, polyester, thermoset or a mixture of these materials are used as resins. Various nanosilica and similar nano-particles, boron-carbide and other additional additives can be added to the resin. In FRP production, carbon, glass, aramid, and boron fibers are used alone or as a mixture. In the invention, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyurethane products produced by placing carbon fibers in polyurethane resin in the longitudinal direction, in a uniaxial direction are used. When using these products in the Invention, a laminated geometry is used for concrete reinforcement instead of circular reinforcement geometry, which is frequently used in civil engineering structures. For the above-mentioned laminated geometry, specific section sizes with a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns, a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm are used. The surfaces of these laminates are coated with garnet sand having a grain size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns by using epoxy-based liquid adhesive.
Today, carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane products in the form of laminates are used in many sectors such as space, aviation and wind turbines. However, in civil engineering buildings, it is only used to provide resistance to earthquake strengthening and chemical environmental effects by using various chemicals, by applying externally to existing beams, columns or floors (NSM, near surface mounting). In the meantime, as mentioned in the invention, it is not used as the only type of reinforcement (primary reinforcement) in the building element during the first production, but as additional (secondary) reinforcement for the reinforcement of the structural elements that already have reinforcements. Further, no matter how it is used, the coating with garnet sand, which is applied in the Invention and contributes to the superior capabilities of the Invention, is not applied. Also, as specified in the invention claim set, the specific primary and secondary reinforcements are used with a width of at least 50 mm without applying the reinforcement scheme with angles of 180 and 90 degrees and without reducing it to specific dimensions. No standard or guideline has been developed or published for the use of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in laminate form and other laminate form FRP products in any country around the world as a preliminary reinforcement type in the first place and not as a strengthening reinforcement in concrete. CNR-DT 203-2006 (Guide for the Design and Construction of Concrete Structures Reinforced with Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bars) has been published for circular FRP reinforcements (FRP bars). The document 440.1 R-15 (Guide for the Design and Construction of Structural Concrete Reinforced with FRP Bars) published by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) is of similar nature. Similarly, the Fl B-Bulletin-40 (FRP reinforcement in RC structures) document published by the International Federation of Structural Concrete (FIB) does not mention the use of FRP products in the form of laminates in reinforced concrete elements as a single reinforcement type. As can be seen; FRP reinforcement standards or design guidelines available in the world have been developed and published for FRP reinforcements in circular form (FRP rod, FRP rebar, FRP bar), similar to circular steel reinforcements used in civil engineering structures.
As for sand coating, there is no standard, guideline or scientific study in the world, nor is there any knowledge, doctrine or motivation about the use of garnet-type sandblasting in this invention, which is the subject of research, and the use of sand coating without stirrup and prestressing. In the invention, the specific sand used in the surface coating of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates is obtained from garnet and epoxy-based liquid adhesives are used during the coating process. During sand coating, sand made of garnet is used at a size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1000 microns, and the coating thickness is required to be at least 250 microns and at most 1250 microns. Garnet sand, in general, is chemically inert, does not contain iron and similar corrosive products, consists of angular grains and has a high abrasive ability. It is non-porous and does not absorb moisture. Garnet sand occurs naturally in nature or is obtained by grinding from garnet rocks. Garnet ore does not create dust and silicosis in industrial use because it contains very low free silica. With these features, it is widely used in waterjet applications and is preferred over silica sand and other natural abrasives. Garnet sand can be reused 5-10 times depending on the application, thanks to its low brittleness and high hardness. Garnet mineral is a non-toxic, inert mineral and therefore an environmentally friendly material. Mohs hardness is around 7.5-8. Its melting temperature is 1300 degrees Celsius, and its specific density is around 3.5-4.3 grams/cm3. It contains approximately 35% silicon dioxide in its content and it is considered that it does not contain free silica. It contains 33% red iron oxide (Fe2Os), 23% aluminum oxide (AI2O3), 7% magnesium oxide (MgO), 1 % manganese oxide (MnO) and 1 % calcium oxide (CaO). By means of all these features, it has been surprisingly found among many sand coating method alternatives that the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates in the invention to coat the surfaces helps to prevent resonance damage observed in rail system elements.
In these documents, factors such as corrosion, resistance to various chemical and climatic environmental conditions, mechanical strength, creep and fatigue are examined as technical problems to be solved. Therefore, the issue of preventing resonance damages in rail system elements, which is the purpose of the Invention, due to the effect of train loads, remained hidden, with this new use, which is without stirrups, without prestressing, garnet sand coated, with 180 and 90 degrees angles and a specific sequential position, and with a short monoblock geometry mentioned in the Invention.
Today, the compressive strength in concrete sleeper types available in the world, for example, as specified in the EN 13230-1 standard for 28-day cube sample should be at least 45 MPa. The reason for this is that in concrete sleepers available in the world, the desired static and fatigue strength capacities for mechanical resistance to train loads can only be achieved by using high strength concrete with a minimum of 45 MPa, and it is necessary to apply prestressing as soon as possible after production, especially in prestressed types. Therefore, in practice, it is seen that concrete with a compressive strength of around 60-80 MPa is used by exceeding the said strength of at least 45 MPa. By means of a use that includes all the innovations in this invention, which is the subject of the research, it has been determined that the resonance prevention ability of the sleepers has increased considerably using concrete with lower strength than its competitors, although concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 MPa is used. By means of the mentioned new type of use, in addition to the resonance benefit, it has surprisingly emerged that mechanical strengths equivalent and superior to other sleepers available in the world are also obtained. The standards and design guides of EN 13230 and similar prestressed and non-prestressed sleepers available in the world are based on the use of steel reinforcements. However, in various patent/utility model documents and scientific research, there are also ideas about the use of various FRP reinforcements in sleepers. However, by addressing the resonance problem that the Invention focuses on solving, there is no information, teaching, instruction or motivation on the use of carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane products in the form of laminates reinforced with the garnet sand coating method used specifically for this Invention, within the concrete sleeper, without prestressing and without stirrups, with specific concrete and reinforcement sizes and positioning. Therefore, it is not possible for an expert in the art to put forward the idea of a sleeper type, or to analyze and calculate a new, short monoblock geometry without prestress and stirrups, which prevents resonance damage in rail system elements caused by train loads using the methods available in the standards or the literature, or to infer clearly from the state of the art with the surprising advantages of applying all the innovations together, by using the existing standards, design guides or methods in any scientific study. In this context, a product containing some of the features mentioned in the Invention will not be sufficient to provide the desired technical solution in the Invention. Likewise, products containing some features mentioned in the Invention, containing general statements and giving a random usage range among these general statements will not be sufficient to provide the desired technical solution in the Invention, when evaluated alone or together. The invention benefits from the synergy resulting from the combined use of all the features specified in the claim set in order to provide the desired technical solution. With the implementation of these innovations together, it has been surprisingly found that resonance damages in rail system components caused by train loads can be prevented and a production method with a short, monoblock geometry without stirrups and prestressing can be applied. In this respect, each of the mentioned features is indispensable for the Invention, and the synergy obtained by combining all of them provides the desired technical solution in the Invention, as well as the mechanical and fatigue strengths desired in railway standards. The originality of the invention comes from the synergistic effect of all these factors together.
Today, rail transportation systems are divided into two main classes as ballastless and ballasted systems, depending on the type of construction element used under the sleepers. Among these two categories, ballasted rail transportation systems are the most widely used system in intercity rail transportation systems. In ballasted rail transport systems, gauge (the distance between the inner sidewalls of two load-bearing rails) and the maximum allowable train axle loads differ from country to country. In the International Union of Railways (UIC) rail transportation systems, of which the Republic of Turkey and many other European and World countries are members, operation is made with minimum 1425 mm and maximum 1445 mm gauge width, minimum 17 tons.f and maximum 25 tons.f axle loads. There is a distance of at least 50 cm and a maximum of 65 cm between the center axes of the sleepers used, and they are used with spaces in between. Similarly, in the technical field that the invention aims to provide a solution for, is related to the concrete sleepers with a monoblock geometry, suitable for positioning at least 50 cm and maximum 65 cm between the center axes along the rail system route and the ballast layer underneath used in rail and sleeper fasteners on ballasted rail transportation systems operated with minimum 17 ton. f and maximum 25 tons.f axle load with a gauge of at least 1425 mm and maximum 1445 mm and the technical solution focused on and the technical area in which it will serve is rail transportation systems with these features.
Therefore, this invention, which is the subject of the research, differs from the invention mentioned in the document RU2013118050A in terms of the technical field it will serve, apart from other differences. In the document RU2013118050A, concrete sleepers suitable for use under rails in the railway sector are mentioned. However, it is stated in the document that this product has been developed for railways with a gauge width of 1520 mm defined in the GOST R 54747 -i 2011 standard, and as it can be seen, it differs with this Invention, which is the subject of the research. As another difference, the invention mentioned in the document RU2013118050A uses “polymer tape reinforcement” as the 1st option as it is mentioned in the document. What is meant by these materials is not "reinforcement", but nothing but polymeric staple fiber reinforcement randomly added in the concrete. As a matter of fact, while these materials are defined in the document, it has been stated that it has a density of 0.85-0.99 tons.f/m3 and has a length in the range of 30-80 mm, and 0.4-0.9 million fiber grains will be used for 0.005-0.01 m3 of concrete randomly into the concrete. Thus, it is aimed to eliminate the electrical conductivity of the sleeper and to reduce its weight and cost. As a second option in this invention, glass fiber with a diameter of 2-10 mm in a circular form (rod) with a length of 2.7-3.0 meters and a "circular geometry" carbon fiber rods with a diameter of 1-6 mm (rods)) has been specified instead of steel prestressing ropes. It is also seen that there is no information in the document about the resonance problem that this Invention aims to solve, which is the subject of the research, or about the specific use of garnet sand coated specific reinforcements used in the Invention, a shorter monoblock design or a non-prestressed, stirrup-free use. Therefore, the person skilled in the art will not consider RU2013118050A and a similar document when evaluating the novelty of this Invention and whether it contains an inventive step.
In the production of sleepers used in the International Union of Railways (UIC) rail transportation systems, wood and steel materials were used as raw materials in the past, but today the most preferred raw material is reinforced concrete. This reinforced concrete raw material, which is used in the production of this type of sleeper, which is called "concrete railway sleeper" for short, is produced by using concrete (cement-concrete) consisting of cement-aggregate-water-additive components and steel reinforcements with various properties. Today, this type is the most widely used type of sleeper in rail systems worldwide. In recent years, composite/plastic sleepers have also been developed in which various polymer fillings (polymer concrete), which are similar in to the English term, are reinforced with glass fiber reinforcement without using cement-based concrete raw materials consisting of cement-aggregate-water-additive components. As an example, the Turkish patent document 2015/17064, mentions the invention of composite sleeper developed with the use of composite resins (several centimeters long) with fiber additives without the use of concrete (cement-concrete). There are many composite/plastic sleeper documents in the patent databases of many countries in the world. The following documents can be cited as other examples: S2019185610 (A1) — 2019-06-20, WO2016095788 (A1) — 2016-06-23, CN105348609 (A) — 2016-02-24, CN104775334 (A) — 2015-07-15, CN202388806 (U) — 2012-08-22, CN101289826 (A) — 2008-10-22, CN108316063 (A) — 2018-07-24, RU20190105718 20190228, CN201910497374 20190610, PL20140702087T 20140113, AU20170014192F
20170712, US201716326219 20170814, CN201820851473U 20180531 ,
CN201820143918U 20180129, CN201810555647 20180531 , CN20181082309 20180129, CN201610766002 20160830, WO2015CN97340 20151215,
W02015CN80860 20150605, CN201510748286 20151106, CN201520189397U 20150331 , CN201510147914 20150331 , WO2015EP53802 20150224, KR20120143586 20121211 , CN201010561776 20101129, CN201010561776 20101129,
CN200810188485 20080618, US20090503459 20090715, CN200810240157 20081219, ZA20060002610 20060330, KR20070075931 20070727, JP19990104967 19990413, EP20030026687 20031120, EP20030026687 20031120, CN20071020092 20070212, CN20061046778 20060601 , US20000673692 20001213, US201314652806 20131219, EP20140778435 20140312, GB20110018163 20111021 , ZA19760004912 19760816, W02005AU00527 20050413. Apart from many other areas, the said inventions differ from this Invention which is the subject of the research, since they are not produced with cement-based concrete (cement-concrete), especially in terms of the type of raw material. The track stability provided by the high mass provided by the use of cement-based concrete is indispensable, especially for high-speed railway lines. Therefore, the expert in the technique shall not take into account these and similar documents when assessing the novelty of this Invention and whether it contains an invention step.
Again, other products that have a similarity with the invention in English are fiber reinforced concrete products. However, this similarity is limited to mere expression. The products in question do not relate to reinforced concrete reinforcement, but concrete additives. Today, throughout the world, the specified fiber additives (fiber reinforcements) are used in the sleeper concrete, not as a primary reinforcement, but only by taking into account the secondary benefits (such as increasing the impact and fatigue resistance), by adding them to the concrete mixer when preparing the concrete mixture. These materials, which are more appropriate to translate into Turkish not as "reinforcement" but as "additives", are products that are a few centimeters long and have a maximum diameter of 1-2 millimeters (chopped fibers). These fibers are manufactured from many different raw materials such as steel, carbon, glass, polypropylene and they are not used as sleeper reinforcement alone. In other words, it is not possible for a sleeper produced using these products alone as reinforcement to withstand train loads. In the patent databases of many countries in the world, there are many sleeper inventions produced using concrete with fiber additives (for example, carbon fiber reinforced concrete sleepers). For example, the document with reference number DE202010009863UU1 refers to reinforced concrete sleeper structures reinforced with chopped fibers, textile yarns or textile fabrics (additives), the main reinforcement of which is steel reinforcement. The technical problem addressed here is that the steel reinforcements in the sleeper corrode over time, causing the strength of the sleeper to decrease. In one application of the invention, it was said that textile fibers could also be carbon fiber. Therefore, in English, the term "carbon fiber reinforced concrete sleepers" is used. However, when the content of the document is examined, it will be seen that the "carbon-fiber" products used are not "reinforcements" but additives randomly added in the concrete. In addition, it is seen that the document with reference number DE202010009863UU1 does not contain any information about the resonant damage that this Invention, which is the subject of the investigation, intends to solve or about the specific garnet sand coated reinforcements used in the Invention, or the shorter monoblock design or the specific use without prestress and stirrup. In addition, while the sleeper dimension information is given in detail in the claim set of this invention, which is the subject of the research, the DE202010009863UU1 document does not contain any dimension information about the sleeper structure. Therefore, when the expert in the technique evaluates the novelty of this Invention and whether it includes the invention step, he will not consider DE202010009863UU1 or the European patent number CN204370251 (II) — 2015-06-03 European patent number heat treatment applicable fiber additive (chopped fibers) reinforced railway sleeper, or CN208685352 (II) — 2019-04-02 and CN108589436 (A) — 2018-09-28 European patent number prestressed railway sleepers using fiber (chopped fiber) reinforced concrete under rail bearing, or any similar document.
Concrete sleepers, which are used throughout the world today, are divided into two main categories according to their geometric shape and the condition of their reinforcement. Geometrically, the term "monoblock concrete sleeper" is used for sleepers produced in one piece and used at various intervals in the rail system. Sleepers of this monoblock type are also divided into two main classes in terms of reinforcement. The first is prestressed concrete sleepers produced with prestressed reinforcements. The second is non-prestressed concrete sleepers (reinforced concrete sleepers) produced using longitudinal and transverse reinforcements without prestressing. In almost all of the monoblock sleepers, steel is used as reinforcement. This invention, which is the subject of the research, differs from these steel-reinforced sleepers firstly by the difference of the type of reinforcement used (circular steel reinforcement, carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane with garnet sand coated laminate geometry) and by not using prestress and stirrup.
Today, various Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforcements have been used in the production of monoblock sleepers in recent years. For example, in the invention Ru2013145791A, concrete sleepers reinforced with glass fiber are mentioned. Document Ru2013145791A states that the purpose behind the reinforcement of sleeper structures with fiberglass is to increase durability and reduce the weight of the sleeper. By contrast, in this invention, which is the subject of the research, a sleeper model with short monoblock geometry is mentioned which is produced by using carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials with specific dimensions and specific positioning in the form of garnet blasted laminate in concrete with a 28-day cube sample compressive strength of at least 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 MPa in order to prevent resonance damages seen in rail transportation system elements. That is, reference points, documents and the products used in Ru2013145791 A or similarly Ru2013118050A are completely different from the reference points of the and the sleeper geometries of this invention. On the other hand, while there is no information or suggestion that the sleeper subject to document Ru2013145791A uses an non-prestressed process in the production method, this feature is indispensable for this Invention which is the subject of the research. As yet another example, the technical problem that the invention described in document JP2008156983A seeks to solve is the water flow that occurs in underground rail systems. Due to the acidic nature of the said water flows, it is mentioned that they both pave the way for explosion hazards and cause the deterioration of the rail system components. In order to solve this technical problem, it is recommended that the sleepers, which are basically composed of concrete material, be reinforced with carbon and coated with resin. Thus, it has been explained that the endurance of sleepers is increased. When the document is examined carefully, it will be seen that this product was developed to be positioned on a concrete floor and that the sleeper is provided with reinforcement margins that were called "dowel bars" in the technical literature that allowed the sleeper to be clamped with concrete on the floor. In this invention, which is the subject of the research, it is stated that it is suitable for ballasted rail transportation systems with a large aggregate/gravel layer with specific granulometry, which is called "ballast" only in the technical literature, without the use of any dowel bar reinforcement and not by using it on the concrete structure. In addition, the sleepers mentioned in JP2008156983A have corrugated rod geometry, they are reinforced with an undefined resin containing carbon fiber, and are used in only 2 types of sizes (25 mm2 and 42 mm2 cross-section). In conclusion, the point of origin of the documents and the products used, the methods of use and the sleeper geometries are completely different from each other and the expert in the technique will not use JP2008156983A and similar documents to kill the novelty and the step of the invention of this Invention, which is the subject of the research.
Today, there are many sleeper patents made of various concrete and steel reinforcements in the world and just because the term "concrete" is mentioned in any invention document or the term "carbon-fiber" is mentioned, it does not prevent each other's innovation and invention step.
Therefore, even if similar carbon-fiber fibers are used in their reinforcements, any concrete sleeper product in which FRP reinforcement is used, will not be sufficient to solve the resonance-induced problem that this invention is trying to solve, where the sleepers are made with carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials with specific garnet coating and specific laminate form, compression strength of at least 30 MPa and at most 40 MPa in concrete with a 28-day cube sample in specific sizes and positions, without stirrup and prestress and with the use of short monoblock geometry. Unlike the strategic, domestic railway sleeper with Boron fiber reinforced polymer equipment with application number 2019/20343 registered in the database of the Turkish Patent Office and unlike the inventions mentioned in the other documents described so far in the reference numbers JP2008156983A, RU201118050A and Ru2013145791A and similar documents, this invention, which is the subject of the research, focuses on the prevention of resonance damages seen in rail transport system elements. Furthermore, in this invention, which is the subject of the research, a sleeper model is mentioned which is coated with sand made of garnet mineral with a thickness of at least 250 microns and at most 1000 microns in size; produced by using carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in the form of laminates with a thickness of at least 4500 microns and maximum thickness of 5500 microns and a width of at least 10 mm and maximum of 30 mm, without prestress and without stirrup, in concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 Mpa in 28-day cube sample, with specific size and positioning and using short monoblock geometry. In other words, the Invention with application number 2019/20343 registered in the database of the Turkish Patent Office or with the reference numbers JP2008156983A, RU201118050A and Ru2013145791A or other similar concrete sleeper Inventions with FRP reinforcement are completely different in terms of the starting points, the products used, the ways of use and the sleeper geometries, and the fact that any feature is used alone will not be sufficient to solve the resonance-induced problem that this Invention is trying to solve.
The other geometric class in which concrete (cement-concrete) sleepers are produced are the "twin-block" concrete sleepers (bi-bloc sleeper), in which two separate reinforced concrete parts are connected by various parts in the middle and used at various intervals in the rail system. In the sleepers produced in this twin-block type, non-prestressed longitudinal and transverse (stirrup) steel reinforcements are used as reinforcement. For example, the Turkish patent documents numbered 2013/05223 and 2010/04364 mention the newly developed prestressed process and twin-block sleeper production method using steel reinforcements. By contrast, this invention, which is the subject of the research, has monoblock geometry and it is a sleeper model is mentioned which is coated with sand made of garnet mineral with a thickness of at least 250 microns and at most 1000 microns in size; produced by using carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in the form of laminates with a thickness of at least 4500 microns and maximum thickness of 5500 microns and a width of at least 10 mm and maximum of 30 mm, without prestress and without stirrup, in concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 Mpa in 28-day cube sample, with specific size and positioning and using short monoblock geometry. That is, the starting point of the said documents and the used products and the sleeper geometries are completely different from each other.
In conclusion, the standards or design guidelines related to EN 13230 and similar concrete rail sleepers available in the world are based on the prestressed and nonprestressed use of steel reinforcements. CNR-DT 203-2006, ACI 440.1 R-15 or FIB- Bulletin-40 and similar standards and guidelines regarding the use of FRP reinforcements in concrete structures are based on circular reinforcements and do not contain any information, suggestions or motivations based on the prevention of resonant damage of rail system elements as well as any information, suggestions or motivations in the geometry in the garnet sand coated laminate form used in this invention. There have been ideas about the use of various FRP reinforcements in sleepers in various patents/utility models and scientific researches developed in the world to date. However, there are no information, teachings or motivations that focus on the resonance problem that the Invention aims to solve by producing a sleeper which is suitable for use in ballasted rail transportation systems which are operated with a gauge of minimum 1425 mm, maximum 1445 mm, with an axle load of minimum 17 tons.f and maximum 25 tons.f and with distances of minimum 50 cm and maximum 65 cm left between the center axes of the sleepers along the rail system route, coated with sand made of garnet mineral with a thickness of at least 250 microns and at most 1000 microns in size; produced by using carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in the form of laminates with a thickness of at least 4500 microns and maximum thickness of 5500 microns and a width of at least 10 mm and maximum of 30 mm, without prestress and without stirrup, in concrete with a compressive strength of at least 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 Mpa, with specific size and positioning and using short monoblock geometry. By means of these innovations applied in the invention, following modal tests on samples with many different variations, it was found surprisingly that the resonant resistance of the sleepers increased. In addition, as a result of the experiments carried out on this prototype, it was a surprise that even though lower strength concrete was used, stirrup and prestress process was not used, and although it has in a short geometry, equivalent and superior mechanical strengths were obtained with other existing concrete sleepers for the first time in the world. Therefore, it will not be possible for an expert in the technique to perform analysis and calculation using the methods available in standards or literature by examining the known state of the technique, the idea of a sleeper type that allows the prevention of resonance damage to the rail system elements by using separately or in combination with the standards available in the world, design manuals or the methods used in any scientific study regarding the sleepers used within the technical field of the invention separately or together, with the surprising advantages provided by the application of all these innovations together. In order to achieve this desired technical solution in the invention, a product containing some of the features in the invention or products containing general statements including the features in the invention shall not be sufficient to provide the desired benefit. A random use will not be sufficient to bring the desired technical solution to the invention. The invention aims to solve the problem of resonant resistance of sleepers by making use of the benefits of the synergy that arises with the use of all these features together. With the combined application of these innovations, it has been seen that the resonance damages seen in the rail system elements have been prevented in a surprising way. Each of these innovations is indispensable for the Invention and with the synergy obtained by combining all of them, it is ensured that the technical solution is introduced to the desired resonance-induced rail system element damages as well as the mechanical and fatigue strengths required in railway standards despite the use of lower strength concrete and short monoblock geometry without stirrup and prestress. The originality of the invention is due to the synergistic effect that all these factors produce together. In order for the invention to work in accordance with its purpose, the Claims are arranged to include all these essential features that provide the synergistic effect. For this reason,
The sleeper types that contain general statements (e.g. concrete structures reinforced with a randomly selected FRP material, flooring-type applications used in rail systems or sleepers) or are not focused on the point of origin of the Invention and the technical problem (resonance) it seeks to solve (e.g. corrosion resistance, resistance to harmful environmental influences, impact resistance, fatigue resistance, resistance to harmful climatic influences, static/mechanical strength/strength increase or reduction of mass), or all other possible sleeper types that will not serve the area to be served by the invention (as a type of sleeper used in ballasted rail transport systems operated with an axle load of at least 17 ton.f and not more than 25 ton. f with a dispenser opening of at least 1425 mm and not more than 1445 mm, and suitable for intermittent positioning along the rail system route) will not contain all of the features in the invention, so they will not serve the technical problem that the Invention is trying to solve and will not constitute an obstacle for the evaluation of the Invention at least within the scope of the selection invention.
In summary, in this preliminary examination conducted by us for the Invention described by the Claim Set, no work in the X and Y code was found that would constitute an obstacle for the patent acquisition.
The Advantages of the Invention and Problems It Brings Technical Solutions
Although sleeper models made of wood and steel materials have been used in ballasted rail transportation systems in the past, concrete sleeper models are the most widely used sleeper model worldwide today due to various problems experienced. However, as it is frequently stated in the railway literature, even in the most modern designs, it is not possible for sleepers to reach the planned service life of 40-50 years due to the constantly increasing train speeds and axle loads from past to present. Today, over 3 billion sleepers are used around the world, excluding newly constructed tracks, and as stated in the literature, at least 150 million of them have to be replaced every year due to premature deformation before the planned service life. Today (2021), the procurement cost of 1 concrete sleeper is approximately 450 TL. Special track renewal machines are used for the replacement of these high-mass sleepers, and the replacement cost of 1 sleeper is approximately 1200 TL today (2021). As can be seen, the replacement cost of sleepers is many times higher than the supply cost. Apart from this, there is a significant damage to the environment due to carbon emissions caused by excessive sleeper production and replacement. In addition, prematurely deformed sleepers often cause premature destruction of rails, fasteners and ballast, resulting in an even greater cost. For this reason, railway construction, maintenance and operation costs are increasing considerably. As noted in the literature, only the annual routine sleeper replacement exceeds 12% of the annual budgets of railway organizations. Apart from these, another issue that is even more important is that in modern railways, the time that can be used for road maintenance, such as the change of sleeper, is limited to a few hours at night. Therefore, in countries operating modern railways, very costly solutions are becoming more and more common by necessity. However, in these high-cost solutions, the main cause of deformation of sleepers cannot be eliminated. The main factor that cannot be solved in the sleeper models used worldwide today is the resonances that occur with the effect of dynamic train loads, and this important factor, which is not mentioned in the standards or design manuals related to the production of sleepers or the use of FRP type reinforcement, has remained hidden.
This invention serves to prevent resonance damages seen in the rail system elements with the innovations specified in the claim set and applied for the first time in the world in the ballasted rail transportation systems within the technical area it will serve. This benefit was determined not by theoretical calculations, but by actually producing prototypes and by conducting large-scale experiments by the inventors. During prototype production, various reinforcement types, sizes, positions, surface coatings, concrete strength classes and sleeper geometries were randomly changed to reveal many sleeper variations without the use of any standard or design guide. In this way, a large number of sleeper prototypes were produced, impacted with modal hammers and the data measured on the accelerometers were analyzed on the basis of frequency and subjected to detailed modal analyses. In the prestressed concrete sleeper, which was used as a witness sample during the tests and is widely used worldwide, the magnitude value of the Frequency Response Function was determined as an average of 0.082 at the first vertical resonant frequency (at approximately 98 Hz). In the invention, this value decreased to an average of 0.015. In this prototype, where all of the innovations specified in the Invention's claim set were applied, surprisingly, the magnitude value of the Frequency Response Function at the first vertical resonant frequency was found to be less than 85% lower than its competitor. This benefit continued at the second vertical resonant frequency, most notably at the third vertical resonant frequency (approximately 1270 Hz), where the magnitude of the Frequency Response Function decreased by over 500%. Therefore, very high advantages have been revealed in the context of preventing resonance damage to the rail system elements. In accordance with the invention claim set, this prototype, which did not contain stirrup reinforcement and was not reinforced by any prestress process and had a lower concrete strength and shorter monoblock geometry, was later found to meet the strength requirements required by the standards more than enough when it was subjected to the classical mechanical tests required by the sleeper standards.
The main purpose of the invention is to prevent resonant damage to rail system elements with a production method without prestress and stirrup and a short monoblock design; however, many other advantages are also obtained by the application of the claim set of the invention. As a first example, in the concrete sleeper types available in the world, high strength concrete with a compression strength of at least 45 MPa per 28-day cube sample must be used. The reason for this is that the desired static and fatigue strength capacities can only be reached by using high-strength concrete of at least 45 MPa in order to have mechanical resistance to train loads in the concrete sleepers present in the world, and in prestressed types, early high strength is necessarily required as soon as possible since prestress must be applied immediately after production. Therefore, in practice, it is seen that used concrete has a strength of around 60-80 MPa by exceeding the minimum 45 MPa strength. In contrast, the invention uses concrete with a minimum of 30 MPa and a maximum of 40 MPa instead of the concrete with at least 45 MPa used in the concrete sleepers available in the world. This way, the cement dosage used in concrete is greatly reduced, and since there is no need for early high strength, instead of the CEM I class cement type used in existing sleepers, more environmentally friendly CEM 11/III/IV class cements with pozzolana content can be used, which are more resistant to environmental conditions. With these arrangements, both the cost of sleeper decreases and carbon emissions are reduced and a greener production is ensured. According to the calculations made using the unit emission values of the raw materials used in the produced prototypes, the carbon emission of 1 sleeper to be produced within the scope of the invention is 208.1 kg I m3, while this value is 482.0 kg I m3 in conventional prestressed concrete sleepers. As can be seen, a reduction of more than 55% is achieved in carbon emissions and great benefits are provided for sustainability.
On the other hand, the length of the concrete sleepers available in the world to serve the technical field equivalent to the invention cannot be reduced below 2.40 meters without taking extreme costly measures. The reason for this is the structure of the steel reinforcements used, as well as the fact that the first point of application must be kept away from the rails in order for the core prestress force applied to cover the concrete in the sleeper rail bearing by making non-linear spreads. Therefore, although 2.40 meter sleepers were used in ballasted rail transportation systems in the past, sleeper lengths had to be increased because this length was not sufficient in today's circumstances and sleepers with this length were deformed prematurely. Especially in concrete sleeper models developed for the last 30 years, the sleeper length has been increased to 2.60 meters. The other secondary benefit to be achieved by applying the existing innovations in the invention's claim set is manifested at this point, and great savings are achieved from the reinforcement and concrete used with the new sleeper geometry with a length of minimum 2.20 meters and a maximum of 2.30 meters. In addition, by means of shorter sleepers, the width of the rail system superstructure (ballast) and infrastructure (ground, formation) is also reduced along the line route for kilometers. This way, financial savings are achieved much higher than the cost of sleeper production. In addition, engineering structures belonging to rail systems (huge viaducts, bridges, tunnels) can be made narrower. This situation is especially important in terms of the continued use of historical engineering structures. As can be seen, by means of these benefits, great benefits are provided for sustainability.
Another benefit to be provided by the application of existing innovations in the claim set of the invention is that the invention provides sleeper production with much lower cost, time and labor than the existing concrete sleeper production methods, thanks to its easy production without stirrup and prestressing. In the new process, there is no need for prestress workmanship, injection-isolation processes, use of anchor mechanism and early high strength requirement that are applied in the production of prestressed concrete sleeper. Compared to existing concrete sleepers without prestress, the need for stirrup and interconnecting rods is eliminated. As a result, the daily sleeper production capacities of sleeper factories will increase considerably, as new sleepers will be produced in a very short time. In addition, sleeper costs are considerably reduced with the increase in daily capacity and the elimination of energy, raw material and labor costs. Apart from that, the 40-50 year service life targeted in the standards is actually reached, and unnecessary sleeper production and delay and cancellation of train services are prevented, thanks to the invention. As a result, great savings are achieved in railway construction, maintenance and operating costs, as well as social and environmental benefits.
Finally, the low-carbon, high-tensile strength prestress reinforcements used in the current prestressed concrete sleepers, which are used most widely in our country, are generally imported in our country as of today (2021 ) and the cost of 1 sleeper is approximately 135 TL. Domestic carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in the form of laminates used in the invention can only be produced in 9-10 countries in the world, one of which is the Republic of Turkey. The cost of supplying carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane reinforcement in the form of laminates used in the invention is 23% lower than the cost of steel reinforcement used in existing prestressed concrete sleepers (105 TL/sleeper for 2021 ). This cost advantage is further enhanced by the invention's easy production without prestress and stirrup, and the use of lower strength concrete. The financial advantage increases many times with the increase in service life and the savings to be achieved in railway maintenance and operation. Today, at least 3 billion sleepers are used worldwide, of which at least 150 million have to be replaced each year due to early deformations. Therefore, the invention has a high commercialization potential and the market volume of the market it addresses is quite large. With the start of the mass production of the invention, the existing imports for the supply of prestressed sleeper reinforcements in our country will be prevented, and more importantly, the export of a large amount of sleepers or reinforcements will become possible for 150 million sleeper changes annually worldwide. This situation is also important in the context of increasing the added value of domestic mines. In addition, the gap caused by the fact that no domestic and national sleeper model has been developed in our country until today will begin to be filled. In conclusion, both the commercialization of the sleeper patent, the reduction of raw material imports and the increase of exports provide a great prestige and financial benefit for our country.
Description of the Figures
In the invention, carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates with specific size, coating and positioning are used in concrete with specific section dimensions, and the concrete section dimensions and the positioning of the laminates in the concrete section depending on the sleeper geometry are described with the attached drawings:
Figure 1 : Dimensions before sand coating of laminated geometry carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane plates used as concrete reinforcement in the invention
Figure 2: Cross sectional view of the invention at the symmetrical two-rail seat point
Figure 3: Individual positions of the carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates in concrete raw material used in the invention without stirrups, without prestressing, and with specific positioning
Figure 4: Cross-sectional view at the midpoint (center point) of the length of the invention
Figure 5: Perspective view of the invention
Description of Parts Indicated by Reference Numbers in the Figures
1 : The thickness of the specific carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate used in the invention before it is coated with garnet sand
2: The width of the specific carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate used in the invention before it is coated with garnet sand
3: The length of the specific carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminate used in the invention before it is coated with garnet sand
4: Left primary compression reinforcement
5: Cross-section of the invention at two symmetrical rail seat points
6: Right primary compression reinforcement
7: Left secondary compression reinforcement
8: Right secondary compression reinforcement 9: Left primary tensile reinforcement
10: Right primary tensile reinforcement
11 : Left secondary tensile reinforcement
12: Right secondary tensile reinforcement
13: The total height of the trapezoidal concrete section at the symmetrical two rail seat points of the invention
14: The upper surface width of the trapezoidal concrete section at the symmetrical two rail seat points of the invention
15: Base surface width of trapezoidal concrete section at the symmetrical two rail seat points of the invention
16: Cross section of the invention at the center point of the length (midpoint)
17: The total height of the trapezoidal concrete section at the midpoint of the length of the invention
18: The upper surface width of the trapezoidal concrete section at the midpoint of the length of the invention
19: The base surface width of the trapezoidal concrete section at the midpoint of the length of the invention
20: Total longitudinal concrete section length of the invention
21 : Cement-based concrete with specific strength and cross-sectional dimensions used in the invention
Description of the Invention
The details of the process steps of the invention are described below to ensure the spread of technological knowledge: i. The main objective of the invention is to prevent resonance damage to the ballasted rail transport system elements in the technical area specified in the description and to provide a production method for non-prestressed, stirrup- free, shorter concrete sleeper with monoblock geometry, ii. The carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) with specific size and positioning used in the production of the invention must be manufactured or cut at a thickness of minimum 4500 microns and maximum 5500 microns (1 ) and a width of minimum 10 mm and maximum 30 mm (2), at a length of minimum 210 cm and maximum 225 cm (3), as shown in Figure 1. These are the dimensions of the product before sand coating. iii. All surfaces of all carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11 ), (12) used in the production of the invention must be coated with sand made of garnet mineral with a size of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns with a thickness of minimum 250 microns and maximum 1250 microns. iv. In the sand coating process described in point iii, epoxy-based liquid adhesives may be used. The sand coating of the laminates referred to in point iii may be carried out before or after the sizing process specified in article ii. v. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the left primary compression reinforcement (4), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-upper lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 30 mm below the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. vi. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the right primary compression reinforcement (6), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the right-upper lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 30 mm below the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. vii. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the left secondary compression reinforcement (7), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-upper lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 75 mm below the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. viii. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the right secondary compression reinforcement (7), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the right-upper lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 75 mm below the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. ix. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the left primary tensile reinforcement (9), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 30 mm above the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. x. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the right primary tensile reinforcement (10), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 30 mm above the upper level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 180 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. xi. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the left secondary tensile reinforcement (11), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 75 mm above the lower level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. xii. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the right secondary tensile reinforcement (12), dimensioned and sand coated as described, must be used in the left-lower lobe of the sleeper rail bearing section (5) shown in Figure 2, its center axis being 75 mm above the lower level of the sleeper as shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, at an angle of 90 degrees to the surface and without prestress and without stirrup. xiii. Before filling sleeper molds with cement-based concrete (21) with specific strength and cross-sectional dimensions used in the invention, lubrication of the molds with a suitable mold oil is needed for the process of removing from the mold. xiv. Fixed or modular molds made of steel, metal alloy, wood or any other material can be used as a sleeper mold. The said molds can be produced by any method provided that the invention takes the desired final form. xv. First of all, carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) must be placed in the mold. Carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane laminates (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), which are dimensioned, sand coated and positioned as described, must be placed in the sleeper mold without stirrup and without prestress. Plastic/ metal, concrete cover/ bar/ support style products with or without any structural carrier or any gripping apparatus can be used permanently or temporarily or without any restrictions during reinforcement positioning, provided that they remain fixed in the desired position during concrete pouring and placement. xvi. The mold dimensions to be used in the production of the invention must ensure that the invention reaches the final specified dimensions. xvii. As shown in Figure 2, the total height of the trapezoidal concrete section (13) in the sections (5) at the symmetrical two rail support points of the invention must be 23 cm. xviii. As shown in Figure 2, the upper surface width (14) of the trapezoidal concrete section in the sections (5) at the symmetrical two rail bearing points of the invention should be 16 cm. xix. As shown in Figure 2, the total base surface width (15) of the trapezoidal concrete section in the sections at the symmetrical two rail support points of the invention (5) must be 30 cm. xx. As shown in Figure 4, the total height of the trapezoidal concrete section (17) in the cross section (16) at the midpoint (center point) of the length of the invention should be 23 cm. xxi. As shown in Figure 4, the total upper surface width (18) of the trapezoidal concrete section in the cross section (16) at the midpoint (center point) of the length of the invention must be 15 cm. xxii. As shown in Figure 4, the total base surface width (19) of the trapezoidal concrete section in the cross section (16) at the midpoint (center point) of the length of the invention should be 23 cm. xxiii. As shown in Figure 5, the total longitudinal concrete section length of the invention (20) shall be minimum 220 cm and maximum 230 cm. xxiv. In order for it to be useful in dealing with the technical problem which the invention aims to solve, the concrete used in the invention must be cementbased concrete (21) having 28-day cube compression strength of minimum 30 MPa and maximum 40 Mpa. xxv. Attention must be paid to the maximum grain diameter of the aggregate used in the concrete and the places of railway connection materials (plastic dowel, angle guide, etc.) in the formation of distances between the mold surfaces (positioning in the mold), the reinforcements in the form of laminates (4), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) used in the invention and the restrictions required in TS 500 and similar national or international norms for the healthy placement of concrete in the mold must be also taken into consideration. xxvi. According to the test results conducted with the specified concrete section dimensions and prototypes, regarding the technical problem that the invention aims to solve, only the cross sections at the two symmetrical rail support points (5) shown in Figure 2 and the cross section at the midpoint (central point) of the sleeper length shown in Figure 4 section (16) are important. Applying various slopes to other surfaces of sleepers in order to give the rail support slopes needed for the stable movement of railway vehicles and to protect the concrete from freeze-thaw effects or to increase its horizontal stability, or to create various recesses, protrusions and cavities for rail-sleeper connection equipment such as hoist, peg, angle guide do not have a significant impact on the technical problem intended to be solved by the invention. xxvii. In the production of the cement-based concrete (21) to be used in the invention, concrete can prepared with different dosages of aggregate, water and cement of any class and/or natural/ artificial pozzolan; plasticizer/ superplasticizer/ hyper plasticizer/ high-range water reducer and/or mixture of various chemical concrete admixtures and/or polypropylene/ glass/ aramid/ basalt/ boron /carbon-fiber and similar fiber additives defined in TS EN 934-2 (chopped fibers) and/or optional natural/ artificial pozzolans/ recycling products and any additional additives, conventional/ geopolymer/ high performance/ normal performance/ fibrous/ non-fiber/ self-compacting/ fluid viscous/ dry viscous concrete. xxviii. Special vibration may not be required in the case of self-settling production of cement-based concrete (21) to be used in the invention, and if less viscose consistence is preferred, placement can be applied by removing the air gaps in it with table-type vibration equipment used in prefabricated concrete production or by removing the air gaps in it with mold compression I bottle type and similar vibration motors and I or by applying the shimmering process. It is recommended to keep the frequency, duration and intensity of vibration at a level that will not cause segregation in the concrete and will not cause material loss and increase the reinforcement-concrete adherence. xxix. After the removal of the railway sleeper specified in the invention from the mold , it is possible to leave an accelerated controlled thermal sphere or natural sphere as recommended in EN 13230-1 , EN 206-1 or the relevant standards or guidelines. Natural or controlled curing processes can be applied at different temperatures (15-90 D) and durations (4 hours-28 d ays) depending on the manufacturer's preference; although the thermal expansion levels of carbon fiber reinforced polymer reinforcements are very low, in order to prevent the risk of harmful reactions such as delayed ettringite formation in concrete, it is recommended that the highest temperature applied during curing should not exceed the upper limit value given in TS EN 13230-1 based on the level of SOs in the concrete. Method of Application of the Invention to the Industry
Although sleeper models made of wood and steel materials have been used in ballasted rail transportation systems in the past, concrete sleeper models are the most widely used sleeper model worldwide today due to various problems experienced. However, as it is frequently stated in the railway literature, even in the most modern designs, it is not possible for sleepers to reach the planned service life of 40-50 years due to the constantly increasing train speeds and axle loads from past to present. Today, over 3 billion sleepers are used around the world, excluding newly constructed tracks, and as stated in the literature, at least 150 million of them have to be replaced every year due to premature deformation before the planned service life.
The technical field to be served by the invention is ballasted rail systems are operated with a gauge of minimum 1425 mm and a maximum of 1445 mm, an axle load of at least 17 ton.f and a maximum of 25 ton.f, by positioning the sleepers between the rail and crossbar fasteners and the ballast layer and leaving distances of minimum 50 cm and maximum 65 cm between the central axes of these sleepers along the rail system route, which constitute about 60% of the ballasted rail systems in the world. Therefore, the invention is widely available for use due to the current demand in the railway sectors of the Republic of Turkey State Railways (TCDD) and other world countries
On the other hand, the length of the concrete sleepers available in the world to serve the technical field equivalent to the invention cannot be reduced below 2.40 meters without taking extreme costly measures. The reason for this is the structure of the steel reinforcements used, as well as the fact that the first point of application must be kept away from the rails in order for the core prestress force applied to cover the concrete in the sleeper rail bearing by making non-linear spreads. Therefore, although 2.40 meter sleepers were used in ballasted rail transportation systems in the past, sleeper lengths had to be increased because this length was not sufficient in today's circumstances and sleepers with this length were deformed prematurely. Especially in concrete sleeper models developed for the last 30 years, the sleeper length has been increased to 2.60 meters. The other secondary benefit to be achieved by applying the existing innovations in the invention's claim set is manifested at this point, and great savings are achieved from the reinforcement and concrete used with the new sleeper geometry with a length of minimum 2.20 meters and a maximum of 2.30 meters. In addition, by means of shorter sleepers, the width of the rail system superstructure (ballast) and infrastructure (ground, formation) is also reduced along the line route for kilometers. This way, financial savings are achieved much higher than the cost of sleeper production. In addition, engineering structures belonging to rail systems (huge viaducts, bridges, tunnels) can be made narrower. This situation is especially important in terms of the continued use of historical engineering structures.
The low-carbon, high-tensile strength prestress reinforcements used in the current prestressed concrete sleepers, which are used most widely in our country, are generally imported in our country as of today (2021 ) and the cost of 1 sleeper is approximately 135 TL. Domestic carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane materials in the form of laminates used in the invention can only be produced in 9-10 countries in the world, one of which is the Republic of Turkey. The cost of supplying carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane reinforcement in the form of laminates used in the invention is 23% lower than the cost of steel reinforcement used in existing prestressed concrete sleepers (105 TL/sleeper for 2021 ). This cost advantage is further enhanced by the invention's easy production without prestress and stirrup, and the use of lower strength concrete. With the start of the mass production of the invention, imports for the supply of special steel reinforcements used in prestressed sleepers in our country will be prevented, and more importantly, a large amount of export opportunities will be provided for the reinforcement that will be needed for 150 million sleeper changes annually worldwide. This situation is also important in the context of increasing the added value of domestic mines. Both the commercialization of the sleeper patent, the reduction of imports and the increase of exports will result in great prestige and financial benefit for our country. The cost of supplying carbon fiber reinforced polyurethane reinforcement in the form of laminates used in the invention is 23% lower than the cost of steel reinforcement used in existing prestressed concrete sleepers and provides a great advantage even if only the cost of reinforcement supply is considered. The invention is applicable to the railway and construction industry as it can be produced much more easily than the most widely used prestressed reinforced concrete sleepers in the world. The invention requires less cement and concrete use, cost, time and labor than current concrete sleeper production methods. The carbon emissions of the invention are reduced by more than 55% compared to existing concrete sleepers, providing great benefits in the name of sustainability. Prestressing workmanship, injection, isolation processes, use of anchorage mechanism, early high strength need applied in the production of prestressed concrete sleeper are not needed in the new process. Compared to existing concrete sleepers without prestressing, the need for stirrup and interconnecting rods is eliminated. As a result, the daily sleeper production capacity of sleeper factories will increase considerably, as new sleepers will be produced in a very short time. In addition, with the increase in daily capacity and the disposal of many energy, raw materials and labor costs, sleeper costs are considerably reduced. Apart from this, thanks to the invention, the service life of 40-50 years targeted in the standards will be more than reached. As a result, huge savings will be achieved in railway constructionmaintenance and operating costs. Therefore, the invention has a high commercialization potential and the market volume of the market it addresses is quite large. The finished product, supplied after removal from mold, curing and other processes, is shipped 7 or 28 days after the date of concrete pouring to the place of use by road or rail, and is ready for use under service loads without the need for any pre/post-stress, injection, plaster, etc. processing, which is extremely practical. During the installation of the invention on rails, any connection material available in the world can be used, and other final processes (quality control, labeling, insulation, etc.) depending on the assembly and production process of the connection materials can be conducted at the production site or place of use, depending on preference.
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