Experimentelle Untersuchungen zum dynamischen Verhalten von Eisenbahnbrücken mit Schotteroberbau

Dynamic behaviour of a railway bridge with ballast superstructure — field trials and modal identification.

The technical progress in the construction of railway bridges enables the realisation of more and more slender and lightweight structures. Also, the axle loads and travelling speeds of the operating trains were constantly increased over the past. Caused by these developments, the dynamic behaviour of railway bridges is getting more and more important for the design and construction of new structures or refurbishment purposes. To investigate the dynamic interaction between the ballast superstructure and the structure of the bridge, an experimental bridge has been built and tested with an innovative system of two eccentric weight vibration generators based on the methods of experimental modal analysis using the resonance method. The experiments show that the ballast superstructure affects the damping and the dynamic behaviour of the bridge in a nonlinear way. The following paper deals with the verification of the results achieved in the laboratory by carrying out field trails on existing railway bridges.