Fatigue Reliability Assessment of Railway Bridges Based on Probabilistic Dynamic Analysis of a Coupled Train-Bridge System
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper presents an approach to fatigue reliability assessment of railway bridges based on probabilistic dynamic analysis of a coupled train-bridge system. The fatigue loading from moving trains is investigated through a novel approach in which three-dimensional (3D) numerical models of both the train and the bridge are integrated with a wheel-rail interaction model to perform coupled dynamic analysis. The results of this analysis are used to estimate the long-term fatigue loading and the time-variant fatigue reliability of bridge details. Train speed and track irregularities are selected as random variables in the coupled train-bridge system model. Probabilistic dynamic stress analysis is conducted for each train passage to obtain samples of the stress range and its cycle count. This information is used to identify the probability distributions of the stress range. Fatigue reliability is evaluated by solving a fatigue limit-state function established through the approach. Effects of train speed and track irregularities on the fatigue loading and fatigue reliability are analyzed and discussed. Additionally, the proposed approach is illustrated on an existing steel railway bridge.
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Acknowledgments
This study was performed when the first author worked as a Visiting Research Associate at Lehigh University (September 2013–September 2014) in the research group of the second author. The reported research was sponsored by the National Basic Research Program (“973” Program) (Grant 2013CB036203), the “111” Project (Grant B13002), and the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant U1434205) of China.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 3 • March 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 2, 2015
Accepted: Sep 4, 2015
Published online: Nov 4, 2015
Published in print: Mar 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 4, 2016
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