Procedures for fatigue assessment of a metallic railway bridge

Abstract

In the framework of the national Research Project "Evaluation of the Structural Integrity of Metallic Railway Bridges", the Laboratory of Vibrations and Monitoring (ViBest, www.fe.up.pt/vibest) of FEUP has recently developed a study concerning the assessment of the dynamic behaviour and fatigue condition a metallic railway bridge of the international Beira Alta route, in Portugal: Trezói Bridge. This paper describes some of the tasks developed, related not only with the numerical simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the bridge under railway traffic and the experimental updating and validation of the finite element model used, but specially with the estimation of the fatigue residual life taking into account both different code specifications and the characteristics of real trains circulating over the bridge.