Comparative Study Among Different Vehicle Models in Case of High-Speed Railways and Its Experimental Validation

Abstract

A comparative study of different existing vehicle models like moving load, moving mass, discrete sprung mass and moving system are presented for addressing problems related to high-speed railways. Finite element framework is used, where the bridge deck is modelled using Bernoulli–Euler beam elements. MATLAB code has been developed for different vehicle models to obtain the bridge and vehicle responses. Such responses of bridge and vehicle, obtained for different vehicle models, show that the prediction of bridge responses can be reliably done using moving load model. On the other hand, there is a significant underestimation in the calculation of vehicle body acceleration, if one goes with the sprung mass model instead of 10 DOFs interaction model. Vehicle’s pitching effect might be the reason behind such underestimation. In addition to that, for the purpose of validation of such 10 DOFs vehicle-bridge interaction model, the response of bridge obtained through such interaction model are compared with measured response data on an existing steel girder bridge. A good matching between experimentally and theoretical evaluated data is observed, which indicates the suitability of the adopted Finite Element model in the practical field.