Vol.23, No.3, 2023, pp. 335–342
UDC:

Damage accumulated through various fatigue processes has a significant impact on the estimated life of a railway bridge exposed to stochastic and variable-amplitude railway vehicle repetitions. There is a critical requirement for monitoring the amount of fatigue damage incurred by bridge superstructures in a timely and precise manner, whether through direct or analytical methods. This study uses the rainflow cycle counting approach to determine the rates of fatigue damage build-up on a horizontally curving, thin-walled box-girder bridge under high-speed train-induced dynamic stress. The thin-walled box-beam finite elements which are computationally effective and consider crucial structural actions like torsional warping, distortion, and distortional warping in addition to the usual displacement and rotational degrees of freedom, have been used to numerically model the curved box-girder bridge. The high-speed train is mathematically simulated using a 38-degree-of-freedom system. The findings indicate the variation of bending stresses for varied bridge lengths, vehicle velocities, and rail surface irregularities. Also, a parametric study has been performed to examine the impact of some critical parameters on the damage index as well as the fatigue life of the curved bridge.

Keywords: box-girder bridge, bending stresses, cycle counting method, fatigue life, high-speed train