End-Shield Bridges for High-Speed Railway : Full scale dynamic testing and numerical simulations

The increasing need for High-Speed Railway (HSR) to reduce the travelling time requires increasing research within this field. Bridges are main components of any railway network, including HSR networks, and the optimization of their design for this purpose would contribute to a faster and more cost effective development of the HSR network. The initial investment, the running and maintenance costs of the bridges can be decreased through better understanding of the their dynamic behaviour. This thesis studies the dynamic behaviour of end-shield railway bridges under HSR operation. 2D beam analysis is used to study the effect of the distribution of the train’s axle load. Relatively accurate 3D FE-models are developed to study the effect of Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) and the dynamic response of the bridges. Modelling alternatives are studied to develop an accurate model. A full scale test of a simply supported Bridge with end-shields using load-controlled forced excitation was performed and the results were used to verify the theoretical models. A manual model updating process of the material properties of the 3D FE-model is performed using FRFs from the field measurements. A Simple 2D model is also developed, where a spring/dashpot system is implemented to simplify SSI, and updated to reproduce the field measured responses. The conclusions of the project emphasize the importance of SSI effects in the dynamic analysis of end-shield bridges for predicting their dynamic behaviour. The conclusions also show that the modelling of the surrounding soil and the assumption of the soil material parameters have significant effect on the dynamic response. Even the boundary conditions, bedrock level and the ballast on the railway track affects the response. The results also show that the bridge’s concrete section behaves as uncracked section under the studied dynamic loading.QC 20170403