Train-bridge interaction influence on the safety of a short span high speed railway bridge

Abstract

The behavior of short span high speed railway bridges is known to be particularly difficult to predict due to the complex coupled train-track-bridge system, as well as for being particularly sensitive to resonant phenomena. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the influence of train-bridge interaction on the safety of short span bridges in high speed railway lines. This requires the definition of variables related to the structure, the train, the track and also the wheel-rail contact. As the bridge model had already been developed in previous works this paper focus its attention on the numerical models developed for both the train and the track. Track irregularities are also accounted for in the analysis and they proved to significantly affect the dy-namic behavior. Therefore, it is not certain that a significant increase of the allowable train speed on the bridge will be observed when train-bridge interaction is accounted for.