Influence of the locomotive on the dynamic response of single-span bridges under high-speed railway traffic

This short paper evaluates and discusses the dynamic response of single-span bridges under high-speed railway traffic and the influence of the locomotive on resonance-induced speed-dependent acceleration peaks. Prior large-scaled studies investigated different calculation models for the dynamic behavior of railway bridges to determine the influence of vehicle-bridge-interaction. However, the locomotives were not included in these load models. The impact of this neglect was studied by a comparative study conducted at the Institute of Structural Engineering at the TU Wien. Numerical analyses developed in this study investigate which characteristics of the bridge structures and vehicles are particularly critical for a significant influence on the maximum vertical accelerations and how great the influence of the locomotive becomes. The analyses were based on two train models of an in the ÖBB rail network operating Railjet , which either depict the actual train configuration including two locomotives or replace the locomotives with two additional passenger cars. A parameter study examines the impact of the locomotive on a wide range of bridge structures, defined by a three-dimensional parameter field over their span 𝐿 , fundamental frequency 𝑛 0 and mass per unit length 𝜇 . These bridge properties can be used to calculate the bending stiffness 𝐸𝐴 𝑧𝑧 . Furthermore, the train configuration used in the calculations was modeled as a series of moving axle loads as well as a multi-body system that considers the vehicle-bridge-interaction.