Assessment of the Safety of a Short Span High-Speed Railway Bridge using an Efficient Probabilistic Methodology

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2014

Authors

João Rocha (Author) FEUP; António Abel Henriques (Author) FEUP; Rui Calçada (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Second International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance

Railways 2014 - The Second International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance

Ajaccio, Corsica, France, 8 to 11 April 2014

Indexing

Scopus

COMPENDEX

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Civil engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Civil engineering ; Technological sciences > Engineering > Civil engineering > Structural engineering

Other information

DOI: 10.4203/ccp.104.66

Abstract (EN): In this paper a probabilistic methodology for the safety assessment of short span railway bridges for high-speed traffic is presented. The purpose is to create a simple, efficient and automatic procedure that allows identifying the critical train speeds over the bridge and assessing the safety of the train-bridge system. The proposed methodology combines simulation techniques with the extreme value theory in order to minimize the required computational time and guarantee accurate results. Stochastic simulation is employed as it enables reflecting the real variability of the parameters that characterize the dynamic response of the train-bridge system. The variability of the bridge, the track and the train was accounted for, as well as the existence of track irregularities. As a case study the safety of a short span filler beam railway bridge crossed by a TGV double train is assessed. The proposed probabilistic methodology proves to be efficient as it allows identifying the critical train speeds with reduced computational costs. It could also be observed that the probability of failure could be accurately estimated using 22,000 simulations which, taking into account the probability of failure threshold that was set at 10-4, is an indicator of the feasibility of the proposed methodology.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific