Temperature effect on service performance of high-speed railway concrete bridges. Issue 6 (June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tian, Y; Zhang, N; Xia, H
• Is Part Of: Advances in structural engineering. Volume 20:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: 865
• Page End: 883
• Publication Date: 2017-06
• Subjects: finite element analysis -- service performance -- temperature effect -- thermal analysis -- train–bridge-coupled vibration; Structural engineering -- Periodicals; Construction, Technique de la; Structural engineering; Periodicals; 624.1
• DOI: 10.1177/1369433216665306
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-4332

Abstract

Non-uniform temperature fields induced by time-varying solar position and heat exchange are of great significance for the bridge safety. The accurate identifications of these changes are necessary to avoid unexpected deformations and the loss of service performance. This article presents a numerical approach to determine temperature effects on train–bridge-coupled dynamics. Heat flux density of different components of a 32-m simply supported concrete bridge on high-speed railway is calculated, in which a section segmentation method is adopted for simplifications of boundary conditions. Based on heat–stress-coupled technology, temperature fields and deformation fields of the bridge are then computed via finite element analysis. Combining track irregularities and its thermal deformation as external excitations, the train–bridge-coupled analysis is solved by an inter-system iteration method. Dynamic responses of bridge and train are compared to those obtained neglecting the temperature effect. Comparative studies illustrate that temperature effect has major impacts on the bridge displacement due to the increase in low-frequency components of excitations. For the train, lateral responses are more obvious. Maximum derail factor and lateral wheel–rail force occur when the train leaves from the bridge.