Increasing the service life of sleepers made from birch wood

Abstract

In construction of railway bed, sleepers of various materials are used: wooden, ferro-concrete, steel and polymer ones. Of all the sleeper types, wooden ones have the greatest distribution, possessing some performance characteristics inherent only in wood. The disadvantages of wooden sleepers are: short service life; using commercial timber of valuable species, the reserves of which are severely depleted. It is possible to meet the demand for wooden sleepers using wood of soft leaf-bearing species. These species are of low cost, but inferior to hardwood in density. It is possible to increase wood density by its modification (compressing). The predicted service life of sleepers from modified wood is higher than that of sleepers from natural wood. Considering its significant reserves and physical-mechanical properties, the most suitable of all soft leaf-bearing species is birch. Reducing the cost price of sleepers from modified wood and increasing the efficiency of their production is possible when compressing several billets simultaneously by height in the compression mold. This research studies the density and compression ratio of wood with uniaxial compression of four billets, regarding their location, the duration of exposing them in the compression mold after pressing, and the initial moisture content of wood.