lnBridge4EU project main contributions to railway bridge interoperability in the EU

In this study the vertical dynamic response of existing bridges on various European High-Speed (HS) railway lines is investigated. As part of the European project lnBridge4EU, a comprehensive railway bridge database is developed, encompassing over 500 bridges from 11 railway lines across five countries. The bridges' dynamic performance is assessed based on the Serviceability Limit State for traffic safety by computing the maximum vertical acceleration at the platform under railway traffic. First, the dynamic response of all the bridges is obtained using 2D analytical beam models, limiting the response to that caused by longitudinal bending modes. Then, those bridges exceeding an acceleration criterion are re-evaluated by 3D analyses involving detailed finite element (FE) models tailored to each bridge configuration. Using the 2D simplified analysis results, the maximum response is evaluated statistically in terms of several parameters (i.e. span length, linear mass, frequency, configuration, deck type, obliqueness, etc.) Then, with the 3D re-evaluation the limitations inherent to simplified planar modelling approaches are discussed.