QUASI-STATIC DISTRIBUTION OF BRAKING AND STARTING FORCES IN RAILS AND BRIDGE

An idealized model of a system of elastically connected bars was set up for the solution of the effect of braking and starting forces in railway bridges. The quasi-static method is based on the assumption that the greatest horizontal external forces are equal to the product of vertical forces and of the coefficient of adhesion. The system of governing differential equations is solved and the theoretical results are compared with experiments. The effect of certain parameters (e.g. of the active rail length, of the horizontal elastic foundation, of the coefficient of adhesion, of the bridge span, etc.) is studied in detail.