Influence of Uniform Thermal Cycles in Reducing Rail Stresses Induced by Creep and Shrinkage Built over Time in Concrete Railway Bridges

In railway bridges supporting a continuously welded rail, the friction induced at the location of the fasteners generates an increment of axial stress in the rail, to be controlled to maintain its integrity. The adequacy to consider creep and shrinkage effects along with the thermal effects in rail structure interaction (RSI) studies is often debated over. A widely accepted analysis approach in the industry is to model the fastening system as reversible bi-linear elastic-plastic. The present article exposes the conclusions of a study which, instead, adopted a realistic hysteretic law for the fastening system to demonstrate, through adequate time-dependent analysis, that the cyclic nature of temperature over time tends to eliminate the gradual increase in axial stress in the rail due to creep and shrinkage, potentially rendering the consideration of concrete rheologic effects in RSI analysis unnecessary, or to be accounted for adequately in order to avoid unnecessary conservatism.

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