A Numerical Investigation of Longitudinal Track–Bridge Interaction in Simply Supported Precast Concrete Girder Railway Bridges
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 29, Issue 3
Abstract
In railway tracks, additional stresses occur in rails due to interaction between the rail and the bridge superstructure, which is a phenomenon known as track–bridge interaction (TBI). The additional rail stresses (ARSs) develop primarily as a result of temperature effect, vertical bending of bridge superstructure, and braking/acceleration of trains traveling over the bridge. One of the major parameters affecting the TBI response is the behavior of interface elements simulating the coupling between the bridge superstructure and the rail. In TBI analysis this coupling is defined by the so-called longitudinal resistance-displacement curves (RDCs). The present study deals with the longitudinal aspect of TBI though a numerical investigation. The numerical modeling approach was verified with available analytical solutions and data obtained from bridge monitoring. The primary interest was to illustrate how sensitive the TBI response is to changes in RDCs with both separate and sequential analysis approaches, which has not been investigated thoroughly earlier. The parametric study was extended to investigate the effects of expansion length and substructure stiffness, in addition to RDC type. For simply supported precast girder bridges, RDCs that are experimentally proven specific to ballastless railway bridges can be used as an economic alternative to those specified by provisions.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 29 • Issue 3 • August 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 29, 2023
Accepted: Jan 9, 2024
Published online: Apr 11, 2024
Published in print: Aug 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Sep 11, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Analysis (by type)
- Bridge engineering
- Bridges
- Bridges (by material)
- Bridges (by type)
- Concrete bridges
- Engineering fundamentals
- Girder bridges
- Infrastructure
- Numerical analysis
- Rail transportation
- Railroad bridges
- Railroad tracks
- Skew bridges
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Superstructures
- Transportation engineering
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