Recycled Plastics Railroad Ties Fatigue Performance

Project Description

This project evaluates the fatigue performance of recycled plastic railroad ties through full-scale laboratory testing at Penn State's Civil Infrastructure Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (CITEL). A ballast-box track section with subgrade and ballast layers was constructed and loaded using MTS actuators to simulate repeated train loading. The study examines the structural response of recycled plastic ties under cyclic loading and provides data to support the assessment of their durability and potential application in railroad track systems.