A model for investigating vehicle-bridge interaction under high moving speed

Abstract

The speed of rail vehicles become higher and higher over two decades, and China has unveiled a prototype highspeed train in October 2020 that has been able to reach 400 km/h. At such high speeds, wheel-rail force items that had previously been ignored in common computational model should be reevaluated and reconsidered. Aiming at this problem, a new model for investigating the vehicle-bridge interaction at high moving speed is proposed. Comparing with the common model, the new model was more accurate and applicable, because it additionally considers the second-order pseudo-inertia forces effect and its modeling equilibrium position was based on the initial deformed curve of bridge, which could include the influences of temperature, pre-camber, shrinkage and creep deformation, and pier uneven settlement, etc. Taking 5 km/h as the speed interval, the dynamic responses of the classical vehicle-bridge system in the speed range of 5 km/h to 400 km/h are studied. The results show that ignoring the second-order pseudo-inertia force will underestimate the dynamic response of vehicle-bridge system and make the high-speed railway bridge structure design unsafe.