Dynamic analysis of railway bridges by means of the spectral method

Abstract

This study investigates the dynamic behaviour of railway bridges crossed by travelling trains. A simplified formulation was adopted in order to perform a direct analysis of the effects of the parameters involved in the problem. The bridge is modelled as a rectangular plate, while the trains are modelled as travelling inertial distributed loads. The formulation is accomplished by the use of the Rayleigh-Ritz method, yielding a low order model with time-dependent coefficients. Several numerical examples are presented and discussed, aimed at investigating the effects of each of the model-governing parameters.