Behavior of Concrete Tied Arch Railway Bridges Under Moving Loads

Abstract

The demand for high speed trains has significantly been increasing globally for the past two decades. High speed trains have great impact on bridges. Therefore, investigation of bridge performance under moving trains with high speeds is crucial. In this paper, the behavior of concrete railway tied arch bridge under moving loads is presented. Numerical study through detailed three-dimensional finite element models were developed to examine the dynamic characteristics behavior of railway tied arch bridges. Three railway concrete tied arch bridges with span lengths of 36 m, 50 m and 60 m were nominated for the study. The dynamic parameters that influence the dynamic response which include; the number of coaches, damping, and train speeds were considered. Dynamic characteristics behaviors, such as mode shapes, dynamic amplification factor, resonance and its cancellation phenomenon were evaluated. Subsequently, both resonance and cancellation speeds were determined, and the optimal bridge span length that suppresses the response at resonance was also proposed.