Abstract
Most railway masonry arch bridges were designed according to codes that predate the 1950s; therefore, assessing their load-carrying capacity to comply with current codes is of the utmost importance. Nonetheless, acquiring the necessary information to conduct in-depth analyses is expensive and time consuming. In this article, we propose an expeditious procedure to conservatively assess the Load Rating Factor of masonry arch railway bridges based on a minimal set of information: the span, rise-to-span ratio, and design code. This method consists in applying the Static Theorem to determine the most conservative arch geometry compatible with the original design code; assuming this conservative geometrical configuration, the load rating factor, with respect to a different design load, is estimated. Using this algorithm, a parametric analysis was carried out to evaluate the Load Rating Factor of old arch bridges in respect of the modern freight load of the Trans-European Conventional Rail System, for different spans, rise-to-span ratios, and original design codes. The results are reported in easy-to-use charts, and summarized in simple, practical rules, which can help railway operators to rank their bridges based on capacity deficit.
Highlights
Recent bridge failures all over the world [1,2,3], including the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Italy, which caused 43 deaths in 2018 [4], turned the spotlight on the state of the existing bridge asset worldwide [5]
We propose an expeditious procedure to conservatively assess the reserve capacity of masonry arch railway bridges with a minimal set of information, namely the span, rise-to-span ratio and design code, employable within a framework of risk assessment and prioritization of interventions
With reference to the line loads, they are ordered by burdensomeness as well; thereby, the reserve capacity is higher for B2 line loads and lower for D4 line loads
Summary
Recent bridge failures all over the world [1,2,3], including the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Italy, which caused 43 deaths in 2018 [4], turned the spotlight on the state of the existing bridge asset worldwide [5]. In the wake of such accidents, verifying whether heritage structures have enough load-carrying capacity to comply with current codes has become an urgent need [6,7,8,9]. For those structures constructed prior to the most recent codes, which represent the majority of the railway infrastructures in many countries [10,11,12], the old age of the bridges and consequential lack of documentation makes it complicated to acquire information from the infrastructure operators [9,13,14]. In order to properly understand the state of deterioration and residual capacity of an existing bridge [14,15,16,17], an extensive campaign of tests, monitoring, and assessment needs to be conducted [12,14,18,19,20].
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