Scribd
Upload
194 views3 pages

Focus On Elastomeric Bearings

The document discusses issues with elastomeric bearings used in Indian Railways bridges. It notes that the quality assurance plan for raw materials and testing is inadequate, as raw materials cannot be tested individually and there are no standardized formulations for ingredients added to elastomers. It also finds problems with the specified grade of steel sheets. The document recommends modifying the quality assurance plan to address these issues and raw material testing, in order to improve the durability and performance of elastomeric bearings.

Uploaded by

Radha Krishnan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
194 views3 pages

Focus On Elastomeric Bearings

The document discusses issues with elastomeric bearings used in Indian Railways bridges. It notes that the quality assurance plan for raw materials and testing is inadequate, as raw materials cannot be tested individually and there are no standardized formulations for ingredients added to elastomers. It also finds problems with the specified grade of steel sheets. The document recommends modifying the quality assurance plan to address these issues and raw material testing, in order to improve the durability and performance of elastomeric bearings.

Uploaded by

Radha Krishnan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Focus on Elastomeric bearings

G.Radhakrishnan, SSE/Bridges/MDU

In Indian Railways, the usage of elastomeric bearings is much more as the number of
bridges is of Pre-stressed concrete girders. RDSO is maintaining vendors for the
manufacturing and supply of elastomeric bearings. In general, elastomeric bearings are
supplied by the vendors by conducting prescribed tests with respect to large lot & small lot
as given in IRC – 83 Part II – 2015. But, in depth analysis has been made in this article
which is more appropriate to know about the bearings in different way for system
improvement.

Raw materials

As far as the elastomeric bearings are concerned, the tests prescribed for large lot & small
lot alone is not adequate. The quality Assurance Plan issued by the RDSO has to be followed
for the manufacturing and then the required tests to be conducted. As per quality Assurance
Plan issued by RDSO, there are two raw materials are given; one is Elastomers and the
other is MS sheets.

1. Elastomers:

Only virgin Polychloroprene (CR) is permitted & preferable grades are- Neoprene
WRT, Bayprene 110, Skyprene B-5 and Denka S-40V. The following physical
properties are required to checked as per QAP (Para No.1.1)
 Hardness
 Minimum Tensile strength
 Minimum elongation at break
 Maximum compression set
 Accelerated ageing test
o Maximum change in hardness
o Maximum change in tensile strength
o Maximum change in elongation
 Adhesion strength of elastomer to steel plates

When we ask for the raw material testing, the RDSO approved vendors say that the raw
material alone cannot be tested for its physical properties. It is very much wonder that the
tests prescribed by RDSO cannot be ensured and so far the elastomeric bearings are
supplied by the vendors without fulfilling the QAP given by RDSO.

Other ingredients like


 Activators
 Anti-oxidants
 Filler material
 Oil
 Vulcanising agent
are added to the elastomers without any standard formulations for reference. By adding
chemicals to the Elastomers, the required results of
 Shore Hardness
 Tensile strength
 Compressive strength etc.,
could be achieved but the durability of the product may get affected due to no
standardised formulation of ingredients. In the absence of details of ingredients, the
testing of those ingredients also could not be done.

In practice, the raw material testing has been done after mixing the ingredients with
raw material and making the final product only. Para No. 3.2.2 speaks again about
the physical properties of elastomers. From the above,

 Raw material alone cannot be tested for the tests prescribed;


 No any proportions or guidelines for ingredients to be added are given by
RDSO and it is business secret from the vendors.
 Testing of Physical properties is given twice in the QAP (1.1 & 3.2.2) and the
vendors are giving one result for the both.

Raw material Final product

2. MS sheet (Laminated plate or reinforcement sheet):

As per QAP, the Grade of steel is E 250 B0 of IS 2062 – 2011. Vendors are making
a lot of confusions that
 Impact test cannot be conducted as the thickness is less
 Impact test shall normally be carried out for the plates above 12mm
thickness
 E 250 B0 & E 250 BR are one and the same
 Producing test certificate of E 250 B0 without conducting the impact test
etc.,

It is of practical problem that the material shall be of E 250 BR of IS 2062 – 2011.


The requirement of material is very less and getting the material of the given grade in SAIL
for such lesser quantity will be difficult. We can get any grade of steel in SAIL provided
considerable quantity has to be ordered. Because of this problem, vendors are trying to give
some irrelevant documents for the supply of MS sheets. This problem can be avoided by
stating the grade of steel as E 250 BR of IS 2062 – 2011. In other major bridge drawings
where much fabrication is involved is having the grade of steel as Grade B of IS 2062
simply. Even for steel channel sleepers which are undergoing dynamic loads, the grade of
steel is not specifically mentioned and suppliers are playing with the very old conditions that
when B0 is not available in the market BR can be used and BR is not available in the market,
Grade A can be used.

IRC-83-Part II – 2015 says that the laminates shall be of IS 2062 or IS 1079 or equivalent
international standard.

As far as elastomeric bearings are concerned, E 250 BR is sufficient. The QAP may be
modified accordingly so that correct grade of steel can be procured and used and thus
malpractices can be avoided.

Installation:

 The permissible irregularities on the surface area of pedestals or the bearing area
shall be within 1mm. That means the surface area should be in perfect level. If at all
any level differences noticed, the same shall not be adjusted by introducing matrix in
between bearings & pedestals or bed blocks. Due to higher thickness of epoxy
matrix, the load transfer is also through matrix which may lead to deterioration /
breaking of the matrix, un-even seating & ultimately premature renewal of bearings.
Also, the repercussion may extend to the super structure over a period of time.

 Instead, build the entire top area of pedestal with polymeric pad and using high
molecular epoxy base sealant to the required thickness duly ensuring proper bond
between existing top surface and placing the bearing on the well prepared top
surface of the pedestal. Thus, the matrix in between bearings & pedestals alone can
be avoided.

 The epoxy layer shall not be in wet condition otherwise it will stick on to the bearing
surface which will affect proper function of the bearing.

 The centre line of bearing, the centre line of diaphragm and the centre line pedestal
should coincide while placing the bearings.

 In case of skew bridges, elastomeric bearings are to be placed perpendicular to the


direction of traffic and not to the skew.

 After placing and seating, again the PSC girder has to be lifted and lowered so as to
release the locked up stresses in the PSC girder. This will increase the life of bearing.

General:

 The codal life of elastomeric bearing may be fixed as 15 years for efficient
functioning of bearings.

 In IRC – 83 Part II – 2015, the formula for the calculation of elastic modulus has
been deleted. Alternatively, a compression load deformation curve shall be plotted
and the value of apparent compression stiffness “Ea” shall be determined.
The test result shall be deemed satisfactory if the value of apparent
compression stiffness determined from the deflection between 30% and 100% of the
test load is within +/- 20% of the value specified by the manufacturer and no
discernible defect is found by visual examination. The manufacturer should specify
the value along with the submittal for acceptance testing programme.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy