SB15- Controlled dynamic field tests for accurate assessment of railway bridges to higher train speeds

Researchers: Jean-Marc Battini (main supervisor), Andreas Andersson (co-supervisor), Mahir Ülker Kaustell (co-supervisor), Hesham Elgazzar (PhD student until 2016-07-31), Johan Lind Östlund (PhD student from 2016-08-01)

Dynamic analyses of railway bridges present several uncertainties and often predict vibrations that are higher
than in reality, especially when high speed trains are considered. These uncertainties are due to the soil-structure interaction, the friction at the supports, the effect of the ballast and the value of the damping at large vibrations. The purpose of this project is to study these parameters by combining FEM analyses and field measurements and to propose guidelines for implementing accurate FE models of railway bridges. The first part of the project focused on the bridges with integrated backwalls along the Bothnia Line.
The second part of the project focuses more specifically on the influence of the soil-structure interaction on simply supported bridges. The project started in 2014.