Non-stationary Buffeting Response Analysis of Long Span Suspension Bridge Under Strong Wind Loading

The non-stationary buffeting response of long span suspension bridge in time domain under strong wind loading is computed. Modeling method for generating non-stationary fluctuating winds with probabilistic model for non-stationary strong wind fields is first presented. Non-stationary wind forces induced by strong winds on bridge deck and tower are then given a brief introduction. Finally,Non-stationary buffeting response of Pulite Bridge in China,a long span suspension bridge,is computed by using ANSYS software under four working conditions with different combination of time-varying mean wind and time-varying variance. The case study further confirms that it is necessity of considering non-stationary buffeting response for long span suspension bridge under strong wind loading,rather than only stationary buffeting response.

Safety evaluation for railway vehicles using an improved indirect measurement method of wheel–rail forces

The wheel-rail force measurement is of great importance to the condition monitoring and safety evaluation of railway vehicles. In this paper, an improved indirect method for wheel-rail force measurement is proposed to evaluate the running safety of railway vehicles. In this method, the equilibrium equations of a suspended wheelset are derived and the wheel-rail forces are then be obtained from measured suspension and inertia forces. This indirect method avoids structural modifications to the wheelset and is applicable to the long-term operation of railway vehicles. As the wheel-rail lateral forces at two sides of the wheelset are difficult to separate, a new derailment criterion by combined use of wheelset derailment coefficient and wheel unloading ratio is proposed. To illustrate its effectiveness, the indirect method is applied to safety evaluation of rail- way vehicles in different scenarios, such as the cross wind safety of a high-speed train and the safety of a metro vehicle with hunting motions. Then, the feasibility of using this method to identify wheel-rail forces for low-floor light rail vehicles with resilient wheels is discussed. The values identified by this method is compared with that by Simpack simulation for the same low-floor vehicle, which shows a good coincidence between them in the time domain of the wheelset lateral force and the wheel-rail vertical force. In addition, use of the method to determine the high-frequency wheel-rail interaction forces reveals that it is possible to identify the high-frequency wheel-rail forces through the accelerations on the axle box.