Advanced dynamic finite element analysis of a skew steel railway bridge

The aim of this paper is to present advanced modelling techniques for dynamic analysis of steel railway bridges. Finite element analyses of a case study skew bridge are carried out and the results are compared with available field measurements. Initially, eigenvalue analyses of different models are carried out in order to obtain the fundamental mode shapes and bridge frequencies and to assess the capability of each model to capture the dynamic behaviour of the bridge. Single-span, three-span and full bridge models are investigated with different elements such as shell, beam and combinations of these. A very good agreement between the fundamental dynamic properties of the bridge and empirical results is found. Following the eigenvalue analyses, time history dynamic analyses are carried out using the full bridge model. The analyses are carried out for different train speeds and the strain histories are compared with available field measurements. In terms of fatigue assessment, the mean stress range values obtained from the strain histories at selected locations on the bridge members are also compared to each other. The results show that a full bridge model using a combination of beam and shell elements is a reasonably accurate and computationally efficient way of capturing the dynamic behaviour of a bridge and estimating the mean stress range for fatigue damage calculations.