Opportunities for synthetic fibre reinforcement in concrete tramlines (2018)

In the past decade macro synthetic fibre reinforcement has become widely used for concrete track slabs including tramlines. By using macro synthetic fibres as a reinforcement in concrete slabs both the casting time and manual work will decrease, while the concrete’s ductility will increase. In addition the durability will be higher with using synthetic fibres, and the carbon footprint will be lower compared to steel mesh or fibre reinforcement. In most cases the steel reinforcement can be omitted entirely from the structures using macro synthetic fibres. The uniformly distributed fibres in the concrete can increase the residual flexural strength of the concrete independently from the location. This makes it possible to use the fibres in both cast in situ and precast elements used for tramlines. The calculation process for these structures always has to comprise of both the static load, the dynamic load and the effect of cyclic loading, i.e. fatigue. These load calculations can be handled using advanced finite element analysis software, which is specialized for concrete and fibre reinforced concrete structures. The paper will present the opportunities for using macro synthetic fibres together with the process of designing fibre reinforced concrete tramlines.