SB18- IN2TRACK2 WP5

Researchers: Raid Karoumi (main supervisor), Andreas Andersson (co-supervisor), John Leander (co-supervisor), Sarah Tell (PhD student), Reza Allahvirdizadeh (PhD student)

For railway bridges on high-speed lines, the dynamic performance needs to be assessed to assure traffic safety
and riding comfort during train passages. The current design codes are results from research done in the 1980ies and 1990ies, e.g. reported in ERRI D214. Recent research indicate that several of these regulations are in need of revision.

The project deals with assessing the actual dynamic behaviour of railway bridges as well as development of a
damper device for improving the dynamic behaviour of critical bridges. Issues such as soil-structure interaction, support conditions, and load amplitude dependent behaviour will be studied, using a mobile dynamic exciter. The work includes extensive field tests on bridges in Sweden and in Portugal.

Methods for dynamic analysis will be improved and new approach will be proposed that can be further developed and implemented in future bridge design codes. The project will also develop guidelines for how to model new and existing bridges for bridge-train dynamic analysis.

The work is divided in the following research activities

• Damping and resonance under rapid cyclic loading
• Passive dampers to improve bridge damping
• Proposal for improved design philosophy