Service Life Evaluation of Curved Intercity Rail Bridges Based on Fatigue Failure

There are curved bridge structures in the intercity rail line. During the operation of bridges, they are subjected to train loads, resulting in stress amplitudes of the construction materials; during operation, when the train interval is short, the fatigue performance of the bridge should be emphasized. Unlike straight bridges, when a train travels on a curved bridge, it tends to move in the original direction, which undoubtedly causes the train to deviate from the track. Therefore, it is necessary to set the track deflection to limit this movement trend, which will also impart radial forces on the track structure, and the reaction force of this force is called centripetal force. Under the action of centripetal force, the train generates a virtual force called centrifugal force. The material stress amplitude caused by centrifugal force and the vertical force both need to be considered. Therefore, a curved train–bridge coupled system was established to simulate the dynamic stress of the train passing through a curved bridge, and the stress amplitude and cycle number of the dynamic stress time–history curve were analyzed based on the rain-flow method. The cumulative damage of the bridge under different curve radii, different train speeds, different lengths of span, and different operation interval times was analyzed, and the fatigue life was calculated. The results show that the influence of centrifugal force at a small curve radius cannot be ignored. In addition, the cumulative damage and service life are greatly affected by the train speed and bridge span; especially when the train speed is close to the resonance speed, the service life is significantly reduced. Finally, the recommended values for the train passing speed for curved bridges with different spans are given. It was suggested that the design speed of a curved bridge with a span of 25 m, 30 m, and 35 m should be set in the range of 70 to 106 km/h, 78 to 86 km/h, and about 75 km/h, respectively.