Dynamics of an Orthotropic Railway Bridge in the Light of European Standards

The paper presents selected aspects of dynamic numerical simulations of an orthotropic steel railway bridge loaded by high-speed trains. The model of moving loads was adopted in accordance with the models set out in the applicable standards. The current European code requirements are referred in which the computer calculations of the dynamic response of the structure are the basis for assessing the suitability of the structure to carry high-speed rail traffic (v > 160 km/h). In this research the calculations are based on the author’s method of generating traffic loads in Abaqus FEM environment. It is emphasized in the paper that in most commercial FEM codes (including Abaqus), moving loads are not implemented in modules responsible for defining of loads. The author’s approach to this issue allowed to obtain results confirming its adequacy. In the longer term, the authors will develop a plan to adapt this algorithm in order to generate traffic loads on bridges discretized as spatial and plane numerical models.