Influence of pier height on the safety of trains running on high-speed railway bridges during earthquakes

Sudden earthquakes pose a threat to the running safety of trains on high-speed railway bridges,and the stiffness of piers is one of the factors affecting the dynamic response of train-track-bridge system.In this paper,a experiment of a train running on a high-speed railway bridge is performed based on a dynamic experiment system,and the corresponding numerical model is established.The reliability of the numerical model is verified by experiments.Then,the experiment and numerical data are analyzed to reveal the pier height effects on the running safety of trains on bridges.The results show that when the pier height changes,the frequency of the bridge below the 30 m pier height changes greater;the increase of pier height causes the transverse fundamental frequency of the bridge close to that of the train,and the shaking angle and lateral displacement of the train are the largest for bridge with 50 m pier,which increases the risk of derailment;with the pier height increases from 8 m to 50 m,the derailment coefficient obtained by numerical simulations increases by 75% on average,and the spectral intensity obtained by experiments increases by 120% on average,two indicators exhibit logarithmic variation.

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.

Field survey and analysis on near-fault severely damaged high-speed railway bridge in 2022 M6.9 Menyuan earthquake

The 2022 M6.9 Menyuan earthquake caused severe damage to a high-speed railway bridge,which was designed for high-speed trains running at speeds of above 250 km/h and is located right next to the fault.Bridges of this type have been widely used for rapidly constructing the high-speed railway network,but few bridges have been tested by near-fault devastating earthquakes.The potential severe impact of the earthquake on the high-speed railway is not only the safety of the infrastructure,trains and passengers,but also economic loss due to interrupted railway use.Therefore,a field survey was carried out immediately after the earthquake to collect time-sensitive data.The damage to the bridge was carefully investigated,and quantitative analyses were conducted to better understand the mechanism of the bridge failure.It was found that seismic action perpendicular to the bridge’s longitudinal direction caused severe damage to the girders and rails,while none of the piers showed obvious deformation or cracking.The maximum values of transverse displacement,out-of-plane rotation and twisting angle of girders reached 212.6 cm,3.1 degrees and 19.9 degrees,respectively,causing severe damage to the bearing supports and anti-seismic retaining blocks.These observations provide a basis for improving the seismic design of high-speed railway bridges located in near-fault areas.

Influence of span-to-depth ratio on dynamic response of vehicle-turnoutbridge system in high-speed railway

For high-speed railways,the smoothness of the railway line significantly affects the operational speed of trains.When the train passes through the turnout on a long-span bridge,the wheel-rail impacts caused by the turnout structure irregularities,and the instability arising from the bridge's flexural deformation lead to a strong coupling effect in the vehicle-turnout-bridge system.This significantly affects both ride comfort and operational safety.For addressing this issue,the present study considered a long-span continuous rigid-frame bridge as an example and established a train-turnout-bridge coupled dynamic model of high-speed railway.Utilizing a selfdeveloped dynamic simulation program,the study analysed the dynamic response characteristics when the train passes through the turnouts on the bridge.It also investigated the influence of different span-to-depth ratios of the bridge on the vehicle dynamic response when the train passes through the main line and branch line of turnouts and then proposed a span-to-depth ratio limit value for a long-span continuous rigid-frame bridge.The research findings suggest that the changes in the span-to-depth ratio have a relatively minor impact on the train’s operational performance but significantly affect the dynamic characteristics of the bridge structure.Based on the findings and a comprehensive assessment of safety indicators,it is advisable to establish a span-to-depth ratio limit of 1/4500 for a long-span continuous rigid-frame bridge.

Developments and Prospects of Long-Span High-Speed Railway Bridge Technologies in China

With the rapid developments of the high-speed railway in China, a great number of long-span bridges have been constructed in order to cross rivers and gorges. At present, the longest main span of a constructed high-speed railway bridge is only 630 m. The main span of Hutong Yangtze River Bridge and of Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge, which are under construction, will be much longer, at 1092 m each. In order to overcome the technical issues that originate from the extremely large dead loading and the relatively small structural stiffness of long-span high-speed railway bridges, many new technologies in bridge construction, design, materials, and so forth have been developed. This paper carefully reviews progress in the construction technologies of multi-function combined bridges in China, including com- bined highway and railway bridges and multi-track railway bridges. Innovations and practices regarding new types of bridge and composite bridge structures, such as bridges with three cable planes and three main trusses, inclined main trusses, slab-truss composite sections, and steel-concrete composite sections, are introduced. In addition, investigations into high-performance materials and integral fabrication and erection techniques for long-span railway bridges are summarized. At the end of the paper, prospects for the future development of long-span high-speed railwav bridges are provided.

Longitudinal forces of continuously welded track on high-speed railway cable-stayed bridge considering impact of adjacent bridges

A proven beam-track contact model was used to analyze the track-structure interaction of CWR (continuously welded track) on bridge. Considering the impact of adjacent bridges, the tower-cable-track-beam-pier-pile finite element model of the cable-stayed bridge was established. Taking a bridge group including 40-32m simply-supported beam and (32+80+112)m single-tower cable-stayed bridge and 17-32m simply-supported beam on the Kunming-Shanghai high-speed railway as an example, the characteristics of CWR longitudinal force on the cable-stayed bridge were studied. It is shown that adjacent bridges must be considered in the calculation of the track expansion force and bending force on cable-stayed bridge. When the span amount of adjacent bridges is too numerous, it can be simplified as six spans; the fixed bearing of adjacent simply-supported beams should be placed on the side near the cable-stayed bridge; the track expansion device should be set at the bridge tower to reduce the track force near the bridge abutment.

A computational method for post-construction settlement of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation considering soil creep effect

Based on reasonable assumptions that simplified the calculational model,a simple and practical method was proposed to calculate the post-construction settlement of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation by using the Mesri creep model to describe the soil characteristics and the Mindlin-Geddes method considering pile diameter to calculate the vertical additional stress of pile bottom.A program named CPPS was designed for this method to calculate the post-construction settlement of a high-speed railway bridge pile foundation.The result indicates that the post-construction settlement in 100 years meets the requirements of the engineering specifications,and in the first two decades,the post-construction settlement is about 80% of its total settlement,while the settlement in the rest eighty years tends to be stable.Compared with the measured settlement after laying railway tracks,the calculational result is closed to that of the measured,and the results are conservative with a high computational accuracy.It is noted that the method can be used to calculate the post-construction settlement for the preliminary design of high-speed railway bridge pile foundation.

Dynamic response limit of high-speed railway bridge under earthquake considering running safety performance of train

Due to the wide railway network and different characteristics of many earthquake zones in China,considering the running safety performance of trains(RSPT)in the design of high-speed railway bridge structures is very necessary.In this study,in order to provide the seismic design and evaluation measure of the bridge structure based on the RSPT,a calculation model of RSPT on bridge under earthquake was established,and the track surface response measure when the derailment coefficient reaches the limit value was calculated by referring to 15 commonly used ground motion(GM)intensity measures.Based on the coefficient of variation of the limit value obtained from multiple GM samples,the optimal measures were selected.Finally,the limit value of bridge seismic response based on RSPT with different train speeds and structural periods was determined.

Near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motion effect on high-speed railway bridge

The vehicle-track-bridge(VTB)element was used to investigate how a high-speed railway bridge reacted when it was subjected to near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motions.Based on the PEER NAG Strong Ground Motion Database,the spatial analysis model of a vehicle-bridge system was developed,the VTB element was derived to simulate the interaction of train and bridge,and the elasto-plastic seismic responses of the bridge were calculated.The calculation results show that girder and pier top displacement,and bending moment of the pier base increase subjected to near-fault directivity pulse-like ground motion compared to far-field earthquakes,and the greater deformation responses in near-fault shaking are associated with fewer reversed cycles of loading.The hysteretic characteristics of the pier subjected to a near-fault directivity pulse-like earthquake should be explicitly expressed as the bending moment-rotation relationship of the pier base,which is characterized by the centrally strengthened hysteretic cycles at some point of the loading time-history curve.The results show that there is an amplification of the vertical deflection in the girder's mid-span owing to the high vertical ground motion.In light of these findings,the effect of the vertical ground motion should be used to adjust the unconservative amplification constant 2/3 of the vertical-to-horizontal peak ground motion ratio in the seismic design of bridge.

Sensitive factors research for track-bridge interaction of Long-span X-style steel-box arch bridge on high-speed railway

X-style arch bridge on high-speed railways(HSR)is one kind of complicated long-span structure,and the track-bridge interaction is essential to ensure the safety and smoothness of HSR.Taking an X-style steel-box arch bridge with a main span of450 m on HSR under construction for example,a new integrative mechanic model of rail-stringer-cross beam-suspenderpier-foundation coupling system was established,adopting the nonlinear spring element simulating the longitudinal resistance between track and bridge.The transmission law of continuous welded rail(CWR)on the X-style arch bridge was researched,and comparative study was carried out to discuss the influence of several sensitive factors,such as the temperature load case,the longitudinal resistance model,the scheme of longitudinal restraint conditions,the introverted inclination of arch rib,the stiffness of pier and abutment and the location of the rail expansion device.Calculating results indicate that the longitudinal resistance has a significant impact upon the longitudinal forces of CWR on this kind of bridge,while the arch rib’s inclination has little effect.Besides,temperature variation of arch ribs and suspenders should be taken into account in the calculation.Selecting the restraint system without longitudinally-fixed bearing and setting the rail expansion devices on both ends are more reasonable.

Parametric analysis on buffeting performance of a long-span high-speed railway suspension bridge

The buffeting performance of kilometer-level high-speed railway suspension bridges has a great impact on the smooth operation of high-speed trains.To investigate the buffeting performance of the structure significantly different from traditional suspension bridges,the first long-span high-speed railway suspension bridge,Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge(WYRB),is taken as a numerical example to demonstrate the effects of structural parameters and wind field parameters on the buffeting responses.Based on the design information,the spatial finite element model(FEM)of WYRB is established before testing its accuracy.The fluctuating wind fields are simulated via both classical and stochastic wave based spectral representation method(SRM).Finite element method is further taken to analyze the parametric sensitivity on wind induced buffeting responses in time domain.The results show that the vertical displacement is more sensitive to the changing dead load than the lateral and torsional ones.The larger stiffness of the main girder and the lower sag-to-span ratio are both helpful to reduce the buffeting responses.Wind spectrum and coherence function are key influencing factors to the responses so setting proper wind field parameters are essential in the wind-resistant design stage.The analytical results can provide references for wind resistance analysis and selection of structural and fluctuating wind field parameters for similar long-span high-speed railway suspension bridges.

Structure and behavior of floor system of two super high-speed railway Changjiang composite bridges

Wuhan Tianxingzhou Changjiang (WTC) Bridge and Nanjing Dashengguan Changjiang (NDC) Bridge are two super high-speed railway 3-trusses composite bridges. This is the first time of using three trusses in such large bridges in the world. These two types of railway floor systems of the two bridges have never been used in China before. The problem how to conform the deformations and stress levels of the railway floor system of WTC Bridge was studied. After finite element analysis and comparison,the plan of arranging one expansion stringer every two panels in railway floor system were proposed and good effect was obtained. Because of the application of three trusses,the allocation of the loads acted on the deck in three trusses is different and varies in different places of NDC Bridge. This problem was studied by model experiment and 3D finite element analysis. The results of 3D FEM analysis coincide with the model test results. The allocation rule of the loads acting on the deck in three trusses was presented. Because of the application of monolithic decks,the stiffness and structural integrity of NDC Bridge are high.

Numerical calculation on solar temperature field of a cable-stayed bridge with U-shaped section on high-speed railway

Based on transient temperature field theory of heat conduction, the solar temperature field calculation model of U-shape sectioned high-speed railway cable-stayed bridge under actions of concrete beams and ballast was established. Using parametric programming language, finite element calculation modules considering climate conditions, bridge site, structure dimension and material thermophysical properties were compiled. Six standard day cycles with the strongest yearly radiation among the bridge sites were selected for sectional solar temperature field calculation and temperature distributions under different temperature-sensitive parameters were compared. The results show that under the influence of sunshine, U-shape section of the beam shows obvious nonlinear distribution characteristics and the maximum cross-section temperature difference is more than 21℃; the ballast significantly reduces sunshine temperature difference of the beam and temperature peak of the bottom margin lags with the increase of ballast thickness; the maximum cross-section vertical temperature gradient appears in summer while large transverse temperature difference appears in winter.

Comparison of Measured and Dynamic Analysis Vertical Accelerations of High-Speed Railway Bridges Crossed by KTX Train

Since high-speed railway bridges are subjected to cyclic loading by the continuous wheel loads traveling at high speed and regular spacing, their dynamic behavior is of extreme importance and has significant influence on the riding safety of the trains. To secure the riding safety of the trains, advanced railway countries have limited the vertical acceleration of the bridge slab below critical values at specific frequency domains. Since these limitations of the vertical acceleration constitute the most important factors in securing the dynamic safety of the bridges, these countries have opted for a conservative approach. However, the Korean specifications limit only the size of the peak acceleration without considering the frequency domain, which impede significantly rational evaluation of the high-speed railway bridges in Korea. In addition, the evaluation of the acceleration without consideration of the frequency domain is the cause of disagreement between the dynamic analysis and measurement results. This study conducts field monitoring and dynamic analysis on high-speed railway bridges to gather the acceleration signals and compare them. Significant difference in the size of the vertical acceleration was observed between the measured and dynamic analysis accelerations when discarding the frequency domain as done in the current specifications. The comparison of the accelerations considering only low frequencies below 30 Hz showed that the dynamic analysis reflected accurately the measured vertical acceleration.

Comparison and Selection of Arch-Rib Construction Schemes for Continuous Beam arch Composite Bridge of High Speed Railway

The paper summarizes the four different construction schemes based on engineering cases for the arch rib construction of continuous beam-arch composite bridges for high-speed railways.These methods include in-situ assembly,segmental lifting,incremental launching and longitudinal moving,and vertical rotation.The temporary structural designs,process methods,and technological equipment for each construction scheme are described in detail.The advantages and disadvantages of each scheme and its application scope under various conditions are analyzed,and opinions and suggestions for guiding the application of each scheme are proposed.The comparison and selection analyses show that the four arch rib construction schemes have certain applicability under different conditions such as bridge site status,bridge span,and construction environment.With the continuous increase of bridge span and progress of construction technological equipment,the arch rib construction technology is developing towards the overall erection direction.This leads to more obvious technical advantages of the segmental lifting method,incremental launching and longitudinal moving method,and vertical rotation method.Therefore,it is necessary to select the best construction scheme according to the construction status and technical conditions during application.

Analysis of rail-bridge interaction of a high-speed railway suspension bridge under near-fault pulse-type earthquakes

Due to the limitations of railway route selection,some high-speed railways are inevitably built near or across fault zones.To study the distribution of rail-bridge interaction under different load history states of suspension bridges under three types of near-fault pulse-type earthquakes,this paper takes China’s longest high-speed railway suspension bridge—Wufengshan Yangtze River Bridge-as the background and establishes a spatial model of the rail-bridge interaction of a suspension bridge.The results show that:under the constant load state,the distribution of additional force under three types of pulse-type earthquakes is generally consistent,and pulse-type earthquakes produce more significant responses than non-pulse-type earthquakes;with fling-step pulse being the largest,it is advised to specifically consider the influence of the fling-step pulse in the calculation.Under the initial condition of the main beam temperature loading history,all rail-bridge additional forces increase significantly,particularly affecting the steel rail system.The value of the rail-bridge interaction additional force under the near-fault earthquake in the initial state of the suspension bridge when the train deflection load is loaded from the tower to the mid-span is more significant and particularly unfavourable.The initial effect of the braking load will weaken the effect of the deflection load loading history.The results of the study indicate that the effect of the initial state of suspension bridges is an important factor influencing the rail-bridge interaction under near-fault pulse-type earthquakes,which needs to be considered in future seismic design.

Safety threshold of high-speed railway pier settlement based on train-track-bridge dynamic interaction

This paper presents a method to determine the safety threshold of bridge pier settlement in high-speed railways.An analytical expression of the mapping relationship between the pier settlement and the rail deformation is derived theoretically for the double block ballastless track-bridge system.By adopting the superposition of the track random irregularity and the rail deformation caused by the pier settlement as the excitation inputs,the variations of vehicle dynamics indices with pier settlement are comparatively analyzed.Then,the safety threshold of the bridge pier settlement is obtained according to the limit of vehicle running safety and ride comfort indices of the high-speed trains.Results show that the dynamics indices of different trains have different sensitivities to the pier settlement,and the train CRH2C is the most sensitive one among all the types of Chinese high-speed trains.When passing through the bridges in common span with pier settlement at the speed of 250–350 km/h,the trains suffer the low-frequency excitations,and the vertical acceleration of car body is most sensitive to the pier settlement of all the dynamics indices.When the car body vertical acceleration just exceeds the allowable limit,the critical settlement value is 23.4 mm,which is much bigger than the pier differential settlement limit in the current code for Chinese high-speed railways.

Influence of interface crack on dynamic characteristics of CRTSⅢslab ballastless track on bridge

The damage of the self-compacting concrete in CRTSⅢslab ballastless track on bridge will lead to a partial void of the track slab,which will affect the comfort and safety of the train and the durability of the track slab and bridge structure.In order to study the impact of the interface crack on the dynamic response of CRTSⅢballastless track system on bridge,based on the principle of multi-body dynamics theory and ANSYS+SIMPACK co-simulation,the spatial model of vehicle-track-bridge integration considering the longitudinal stiffness of supports,the track structure and interlayer contact characteristics were established.The dynamic characteristics of the system under different conditions of the width,length and position of the interface crack were analysed,and the limited values of the length and width of the cracks at the track slab edge were proposed.The results show that when the self-compacting concrete does not completely void along the transverse direction of the track slab,the crack has little effect on the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle-track-bridge system.However,when the self-compacting concrete is completely hollowed out along the transverse direction of the track slab,the dynamic amplitudes of the system increase.When the crack length is 1.6 m,the wheel load reduction rate reaches 0.769,which exceeds the limit value and threatens the safety of train operation.The vertical acceleration of the track slab increases by 250.1%,which affects the service life of the track system under the train speed of 200 km/h.

Effects of wind barriers on the aerodynamic characteristics of bridge-train system for a road-rail same-story truss bridge

Wind barriers are commonly adopted to prevent the effects of wind on high-speed railway trains,but their wind-proofing effects are greatly affected by substructures.To investigate the effects of wind barriers on the aerodynamic characteristic of road-rail same-story truss bridge-train systems,wind tunnel experiments were carried out using a 1:50 scale model.Taking a wind barrier with a porosity of 30%as an example,the aerodynamic characteristics of the bridge train system under different wind barrier layouts(single-sided and double-sided),positions(inside and outside)and heights(2.5 m,3.0 m,3.5 m and 4.0 m)were tested.The results indicate that the downstream inside wind barrier has almost no effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of the train-bridge system,but the downstream outside wind barrier increases the drag coefficient of the bridge and reduces both the lift coefficient and drag coefficient of the train due to its effect on the trains wind pressure distribution,especially on the trains leeward surface.When the wind barriers are arranged on the outside,their effects on the drag coefficient of the bridge and shielding effect on the train are greater than when they are arranged on the inside.As the height of the wind barrier increases,the drag coefficient of the bridge also gradually increases,and the lift coefficient and drag coefficient of the train gradually decrease,but the degree of variation of the aerodynamic coefficient with the height is slightly different due to the different wind barrier layouts.When 3.0 m high double-sided wind barriers are arranged on the outside of the truss bridge,the drag coefficient of the bridge only increases by 12%,while the drag coefficient of the train decreases by 55%.

Analytical solution to mapping rail deformation under bridge transverse deformation using energy variational principle

The track geometry is a critical factor that affects the running safety and riding comfort of trains moving on a high-speed railway bridge.This study addresses the mapping relationship between the track deformation and lateral deformations of bridges.Equilibrium equations and natural boundary conditions of the track-bridge system are established based on the energy variational principle,and an analytical solution is derived for the track deformation accounting for lateral bridge deformations.A five-span simply-supported bridge with continuous welded rail has been selected as the case study.The mapping rail deformations are compared to the finite element results,and both results agree well with each other,validating the analytical method proposed in this paper.The influence factors on the mapping rail deformation are further evaluated.Results show that the mapping rail deformation is consistent with the girder displacement at the area that is away from the girder ends when the flexural stiffness ratio between the track and the bridge girder is low.The interlayer stiffness has a significant effect on the mapping rail deformation when the track flexural stiffness is of a high value.