Study on Train Derailment Control on Railway Steel Bridge

Several derailment accidents have happened on railway steel bridges,whose width-to-span ratios satisfy the limit values of lateral rigidity given by design code. However, derailment causes and preventive measures cannot be investigated by spot test. Consequently, the theory of energy random analysis for train derailment is used to analyze four derailment cases on steel bridge. The calculated results corresponding to the actual accident, manifests that the theory of derailment analysis above is effective for interpreting train derailment on bridge. In addition, it is testified that the scarcity of bridge lateral rigidity is a dominant cause resulting in derailment on bridge, and derailment accidents cannot be prevented with the existing limit value of lateral rigidity. In this paper, A new method is presented to analyze the limit value of bridge lateral rigidity for derailment prevention. The limit values of lateral rigidity for 32 m and 40 m long deck steel plate girder have been established as [B/L]=1/13.6 and 1/15.7 respectively, and that of 3 x 80 continuous truss bridge is established as [B/L] =1/12.1