Deformation monitoring of long-span railway bridges based on SBAS-InSAR technology

The deformation monitoring of long-span railway bridges is significant to ensure the safety of human life and property.The interferometric synthetic aperture radar(In SAR)technology has the advantage of high accuracy in bridge deformation monitoring.This study monitored the deformation of the Ganjiang Super Bridge based on the small baseline subsets(SBAS)In SAR technology and Sentinel-1A data.We analyzed the deformation results combined with bridge structure,temperature,and riverbed sediment scouring.The results are as follows:(1)The Ganjiang Super Bridge area is stable overall,with deformation rates ranging from-15.6 mm/yr to 10.7 mm/yr(2)The settlement of the Ganjiang Super Bridge deck gradually increases from the bridge tower toward the main span,which conforms to the typical deformation pattern of a cable-stayed bridge.(3)The sediment scouring from the riverbed cause the serious settlement on the bridge’s east side compared with that on the west side.(4)The bridge deformation negatively correlates with temperature,with a faster settlement at a higher temperature and a slow rebound trend at a lower temperature.The study findings can provide scientific data support for the health monitoring of long-span railway bridges.

A discussion about the limitations of the Eurocode’s high-speed load model for railway bridges

High-speed railway bridges are subjected to normative limitations concerning maximum permissible deck accelerations.For the design of these structures,the European norm EN 1991-2 introduces the high-speed load model(HSLM)—a set of point loads intended to include the effects of existing high-speed trains.Yet,the evolution of current trains and the recent development of new load models motivate a discussion regarding the limits of validity of the HSLM.For this study,a large number of randomly generated load models of articulated,conventional,and regular trains are tested and compared with the envelope of HSLM effects.For each type of train,two sets of 100,000 load models are considered:one abiding by the limits of the EN 1991-2 and another considering wider limits.This comparison is achieved using both a bridge-independent metric(train signatures)and dynamic analyses on a case study bridge(the Canelas bridge of the Portuguese Railway Network).For the latter,a methodology to decrease the computational cost of moving loads analysis is introduced.Results show that some theoretical load models constructed within the stipulated limits of the norm can lead to effects not covered by the HSLM.This is especially noted in conventional trains,where there is a relation with larger distances between centres of adjacent vehicle bogies.

Static Load Test Detection of Continuous Rigid- Frame Railway Bridge

The quality of the continuous rigid-frame railway bridge is related to the safety of train operation,so it is necessary to test its stiffness,strength,and other indicators.Static load test is a common technique for bridge inspection.This article summarizes the purpose of the static load test for a continuous rigid-frame railway bridge,including the required equipment,operation methods,etc.,and lists examples to analyze the operation process and precautions of static load test,hoping to provide reference information for relevant personnel.

Over-height truck collisions with railway bridges:attenuation of damage using crash beams

Railway bridges are susceptible to over-height truck collisions and to address this issue,it is necessary to attenuate the effect of these impacts to ensure the safety of transportation operations.This study experimentally investigates the effectiveness of crash beams as a cushioning mechanism for railway bridges against collisions.Over-height truck and railway bridge impact events were simulated in a 1:5 scale experiment.The design parameters such as the stiffness of the crash beam and the bridge supports were scaled to evaluate different levels of attenuation.Seventeen experiments were conducted with five configurations consisting of four different types of crash beams and one no-crash beam arrangement.The results show that crash beams attenuate bridge total peak dynamic displacement responses between 14.5%and 35.7%,depending on the intensity of the impact and crash beam type.In addition,the results show that the average effectiveness in attenuating residual deformation for all four crash beams ranges from 43.03%to 83.40%.Finally,various designs and their effectiveness against lateral impacts with different speeds are discussed.The overall scope of this research is to provide objective information about the design of crash beams for railway bridges based on their response to over-height truck collisions at various speeds.

Seismic analysis of high-speed railway irregular bridge–track system considering V-shaped canyon effect

To explore the effect of canyon topography on the seismic response of railway irregular bridge-track system that crosses a V-shaped canyon, seismic ground motions of the horizontal site and V-shaped canyon site were simulated through theoretical analysis with 12 earthquake records selected from the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center(PEER) Strong Ground Motion Database matching the site condition of the bridge.Nonlinear seismic response analyses of an existing 11-span irregular simply supported railway bridge-track system were performed under the simulated spatially varying ground motions. The effects of the V-shaped canyon topography on the peak ground acceleration at bridge foundations and seismic responses of the bridge-track system were analyzed. Comparisons between the results of horizontal and V-shaped canyon sites show that the top relative displacement between adjacent piers at the junction of the incident side and the back side of the V-shaped site is almost two times that of the horizontal site, which also determines the seismic response of the fastener. The maximum displacement of the fastener occurs in the V-shaped canyon site and is 1.4 times larger than that in the horizontal site. Neglecting the effect of V-shaped canyon leads to the inappropriate assessment of the maximum seismic response of the irregular high-speed railway bridge-track system. Moreover, engineers should focus on the girder end to the left or right of the two fasteners within the distance of track seismic damage.

BDS/GPS deformation analysis of a long-span cable-stayed bridge based on colored noise filtering

Combining GPS and BDS technology to monitor the deformation of long-span railway bridges with stricter deformation control requirements is of significance to the safety and control of the bridge and the safety of railway traffic.Previous studies have ignored the influence of coloured noise in the deformation time series.This is not conducive to accurate deformation analysis of long-span railway bridges.Therefore,GPS,BDS and GPS/BDS monitoring data of Ganjiang Bridge located in Ganzhou city,Jiangxi Province,China are adopted in this paper to filter the coloured noise in the deformation time series by principal component analysis(PCA),and the influence of coloured noise on the deformation analysis results of railway bridge is analysed.The experimental results show that the diurnal temperature difference causes the mid-span and the tower of the railway cable-stayed bridge to deform with a period of about one day in the vertical and longitudinal directions,respectively.Ignoring colored noise will make the uncertainty of the deformation parameter estimation overly optimistic.PCA can significantly reduce the coloured noise,and thus reduce the uncertainty of deformation parameter estimation by about 73%.Moreover,the average difference between the daily periodic motion amplitudes of the monitoring points obtained by using GPS and BDS deformation time series is 1.65 mm.The use of GPS/BDS deformation time series is not only helpful to reduce the influence of coloured noise,but also can reduce the difference between amplitude analysis results obtained from GPS and BDS deformation time series.

Seismic response of the long-span steel truss arch bridge with the thrust under multidimensional excitation

Purpose–Under different ground motion excitation modes,the spatial coupling effect of seismic response for the arch bridge with thrust,seismic weak parts and the internal force components of the control section of main arch ribs are analyzed.Design/methodology/approach–Taking a 490 m deck type railway steel truss arch bridge as the background,the dynamic calculation model of the whole bridge was established by SAP2000 software.The seismic response analyses under one-,two-and three-dimension(1D,2D and 3D)uniform ground motion excitations were carried out.Findings–For the steel truss arch bridge composed of multiple arch ribs,any single direction ground motion excitation will cause large axial force in the chord of arch rib.The axial force caused by transverse and vertical ground motion excitation in the chord of arch crown area is 1.4–3.6 times of the corresponding axial force under longitudinal seismic excitation.The in-plane bending moment caused by the lower chord at the vault is 4.2–5.5 times of the corresponding bending moment under the longitudinal seismic excitation.For the bottom chord of arch rib,the arch foot is the weak part of earthquake resistance,but for the upper chord of arch rib,the arch foot,arch crown and the intersection of column and upper chord can all be the potential earthquake-resistant weak parts.The normal stress of the bottom chord of the arch rib under multidimensional excitation is mainly caused by the axial force,but the normal stress of the upper chord of the arch rib is caused by the axial force,in-plane and out of plane bending moment.Originality/value–The research provides specific suggestions for ground motion excitation mode and also provides reference information for the earthquake-resistant weak part and seismic design of long-span deck type railway steel truss arch bridges.

Mechanical performance analysis and stiffness test of a new type of suspension bridge

A new type of suspension bridge is proposed based on the gravity stiffness principle.Compared with a conventional suspension bridge,the proposed bridge adds rigid webs and cross braces.The rigid webs connect the main cable and main girder to form a truss that can improve the bending stiffness of the bridge.The cross braces connect the main cables to form a closed space truss structure that can improve the torsional stiffness of the bridge.The rigid webs and cross braces are installed after the construction of a conventional suspension bridge is completed to resist different loads with different structural forms.A new type of railway suspension bridge with a span of 340 m and a highway suspension bridge with a span of 1020 m were designed and analysed using the finite element method.The stress,deflection of the girders,unbalanced forces of the main towers,and natural frequencies were compared with those of conventional suspension bridges.A stiffness test was carried out on the new type of suspension bridge with a small span,and the results were compared with those for a conventional bridge.The results showed that the new suspension bridge had a better performance than the conventional suspension bridge.