Prestressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties) are principally designed in order to carry\nwheel loads from the rails to the ground of railway tracks, as well as to secure rail gauge for safe train\ntravels. Their design takes into account static and dynamic loading conditions. In spite of prestressed\nconcrete crossties being most commonly used in railway tracks, there have always been many\ndemands from rail engineers to improve the serviceability and functionality of concrete crossties.\nFor example, signaling, fiber optic, equipment cables are often damaged either by ballast corners\nor by the tamping machine. There has been a need to re-design concrete crossties to incorporate\ncables internally so that they would not experience detrimental or harsh environments. Also, many\nconcrete crossties need a retrofit for an automatic train control device and similar signaling equipment.\nIn contrast, the effects of holes and web openings on the structural capacity of concrete crossties have\nnot been thoroughly investigated. This paper accordingly highlights the experimental investigations\ninto the effect of holes and web openings on the toughness and ductility of concrete crossties. The key\noutcome of this research is to enable a better decision making process for retrofitting prestressed\nconcrete crossties with holes and web openings in practice.
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