Replacement Criteria for Concrete Catenary Poles

抄録

Concrete catenary poles for electric railways are load-supporting members which support overhead contact lines and their fittings, etc., and their required mechanical strength is determined in consideration of the load which in turn depends on in-service conditions. To determine during maintenance whether a pole needs to be replaced due to deterioration it is important to be able to estimate its retained strength. Concrete catenary poles have been used on the railways on a wide scale for over 50 years. Therefore, there is a desire to determine criteria and standards that can be used to plan their replacement according to level of deterioration. This paper clarifies the main deterioration processes affecting concrete poles based on the results of field surveys on commercial lines, and bending and material tests on disused poles. This paper also proposes a method to determine whether a pole needs to be replaced or not.