Dynamic Loading

for High Speed Railways

Dipankar Bhawal **
ABSTRACT

Dynamic amplification and related phenomena of bridges due to loads from vehicles moving at different speed
should be studied in light of increased capacity of these to run at higher speed and volume. In India the intricate
network of the highways and the railways play an important role in safely carrying freight and passengers in bulk.
These networks consist of several small and long span cross drainage structures , culverts , bridges etc. They should
be made safe, operable and should be regularly upgraded on the basis of nature, frequency and economic importance
of the traffic. Some sections of this network, specially bridges or viaducts may require reassessment in terms of their
performance when subjected to heavy traffic and also when falls in the route which is dedicated as say high-speed
railway corridors. Current provisions of code for bridges may require some enhancement in terms of modified
impact factors or dynamic augmentation factors for live loads like high speed railway-trains or similar vehicles.
These dynamic impact factors shall be ascertained in light of vehicle-structure interaction between dynamic-moving
vehicles and the structures during design of both new as well as during inspection of old bridges. Also there is a
need for adopting generalised high speed load models representing a range of moving loads which becomes
necessary from the point of view interoperability of different types of high speed railway cars or general vehicles
meant for roadways. As a specific case railway bridges are chosen to be the ideal structures for this study.

Keywords : Vehicle-structure Dynamic Interaction, Dynamic Impact factor, High Speed Load Models.

1. INTRODUCTION
There is a strong urge for improvement
in the field of transportation in India which is
reflected in expansion of road networks and
introduction of High-Speed Railway systems
into existing railway network. This move
undoubtedly indicates an aspiring and growing
economy of our nation. However this
development also demands improvement and
reassessment of strength and safety of both
existing and future infrastructure like tracks and
inter-linking bridges.
Our existing codes for bridges
(railways) takes into account of increase in
dynamic response of superstructures of bridges
due to railway-cars by deriving impact factors
from specific formulae (coefficient of dynamic
augment-CDA) meant for railway tracks of
different gauges and numbers [1] .This code
based formula serves well for a majority of the
super-structures if the speed of vehicles and
length of the span of superstructures is restrained
within specific range. Also it can be seen that for
some cases the increment in response (after
applying CDA) of superstructures for bridges
with shorter spans is higher and conservative for
a certain range of speed. Traditional code based
approaches can result in underestimation of
responses of bridges under dynamic action
caused by high-speed trains(HST). Therefore
some additional analysis is needed for bridges
when subjected to dynamic loading by railway-
cars moving at high speed. Extensive
experimentation on the problem of dynamic
amplification of superstructures of bridges due
to moving vehicles have already been carried out
by various authorities. This study is an attempt
to point out the need to review the prevalent
approaches in this respect and streamline them
as code provisions or recommendations.
2. OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY
The necessity of carrying additional
analysis of superstructures by taking into

** Chief Consultant-Newline Consulting Engineers, India , BE, M-Tech(Structures) ; e-mail:

dbhawalnce@gmail.com 1
account of vehicle-structure interaction can be
justified by comparing the impact factors
derived by three different methods. One of
which is the direct approach such as by using the
traditional code-based formula (CDA), one by
applying the static loads at various positions
with time without considering vehicle-structure
interaction and the third one is derived by
considering vehicle-structure interaction
analysis. Also it can be shown that general
models developed on the basis of
interoperability of various commercial railway-
vehicles can simplify the process of design and
inspection of bridges on various stretches. For
this purpose response of two types of different
spans of ballast less steel bridges having single
track running along the bridge axis with a span
length of 20.0 m and the other with 80.0 m are
chosen and assumed to be carrying rolling stocks
traversing at different speeds. Only critical
results shall be presented for this study.
3. DESCRIPTION OF MODELS
In most of the cases the responses of
simply supported superstructures of bridges will
be found to be critical. Although this verification
should also be carried out on continuous
structures, for simplification simply supported
(isostatic) structures are selected. To take into
account of different types of trains as an
example, informative loads from the set of
models called HSLM-A (A1 to A10) from UIC-
Code Leaflet, 776-2,Appendix -B, Table. 6 [2]
will be used for these verifications. In practice
these models shall be changed to make suitable
as per requirement and applicability of the
railways. Spatial models with MDOF both for
the bridge and the vehicles could be adopted for
in depth analysis of such systems but simplified
models with SDOF (for both bridge and vehicle)
are sufficient for majority of the cases and
** Chief Consultant-Newline Consulting Engineers, India , BE, M-Tech(Structures) ; e-mail:
dbhawalnce@gmail.com
specially in preliminary investigations. In this
study superstructures are idealised as one single
beam element with flexural rigidity having
pinned supports as boundaries, consisting of
uniformly distributed mass and constrained to
respond vertically only. Also the beam element
is assumed to have negligible shear deformation
and rotational rigidity. The rotational inertia of
the rigid vehicle bodies will be ignored.
Dynamic loads from railway-cars shall be
applied in the form of point loads from
corresponding point masses, being transferred
through axle/wheel-sets(combined in pairs) as
shown in schematic figures (Fig. 1 and Fig.
2).These point masses will be supported by
representative springs and dampers and will be
termed as primary and secondary suspension
elements. Mass of the wheel-axles will be un-
sprung; mass of the bogie frame and the rail-cars
will be sprung and dampened with mechanical
springs and dampers. Mechanical spring
constants and damping coefficients assumed
here are the average values and representative of
a certain range of constants Table.1 [4], which
may vary from one project to another. These
values are equally distributed among the axle
points. Detailed analysis with enhanced models
may be required to simulate the interactions
between various interface elements e.g. rail-car
and track, track and ballast, ballast and deck etc.
which can be formulated by assuming additional
elements representing tracks, rail-pads, sleepers
and ballasts respectively. The effect of
irregularities of tracks, spacing of sleepers,
flatness of wheels, loss of contact of wheels etc.
could also be introduced as numerical models.
For this study the effect of these parameters will
be ignored which may not always be required
for bridge designers but for the study or design
of the rail-vehicles for safety, efficiency and
comfort of the passengers.
2
 Fig. 1 : Schematic configuration of Models of Universal Dynamic-Train : HSLM-A, [2]

Fig. 2 : Idealised model of a single car and components , load from wheel-axles and beam element

4. NUMERICAL BASIS OF THE where mode shape is assumed for maximum

ANALYSIS
The dynamic behaviour of the beam
element can be mathematically expressed on the
basis of a forced dynamic analysis derived from
the traditional beam theory (Chapter-16) [3].
Though finite elements can be used for
improved and finer analysis, modal analysis of a
isostatic beam element, which can represent both
girder type as well as truss bridges when
vibrating in their lowest modes is sufficient for
this study. Following analysis will be carried out
assuming that there is no geometric- nonlinearity
and both material as well as additional spring or
damping elements should also behave linearly.
For nth. mode of vibration of uniform
beam element of span length with distributed
mass of μ kN/m (assumed to be the sum of dead
load from self weight and super imposed loads
like tracks, sleepers, fixtures railings etc.) the
equilibrium condition of the modal mass 𝑀𝑀𝑛𝑛 at
time t when loading on the beam at location 'x'
from left support (x = 0 )can be expressed as,
𝑀𝑀𝑛𝑛 𝑞𝑞̈ + 𝐶𝐶𝑛𝑛 𝑞𝑞̇ + 𝐾𝐾𝑛𝑛 𝑞𝑞 =
∑𝑘𝑘 �Φn �𝑥𝑥𝑟𝑟𝑘𝑘 ��(𝐹𝐹𝑘𝑘𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (𝑡𝑡) + 𝐹𝐹𝑘𝑘𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (𝑡𝑡)) ..(𝐸𝐸1)
𝑛𝑛 𝜋𝜋 𝑥𝑥
amplitude Φn (𝑥𝑥) = 1 × 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 ( 𝐿𝐿
) subject to the
condition as
{Φ(𝑥𝑥)}
Φ(𝑥𝑥) , 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑥𝑥 < 𝐿𝐿 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑥𝑥 > 0
=� else
0
and for kth. axle relative displacement 𝑥𝑥𝑟𝑟𝑘𝑘 = (v ×
t - 𝑥𝑥𝑜𝑜 )k where 'v' (kmph) is the velocity of the
axles and say {𝑥𝑥𝑜𝑜 } is the distance of the starting
points of different axles from left support;
Therefore for nth. mode 𝑀𝑀𝑛𝑛 = modal mass, 𝐶𝐶𝑛𝑛 =
2 ξ 𝑀𝑀𝑛𝑛 𝜔𝜔𝑛𝑛 ; ξ = critical damping ratio as per
𝑛𝑛 2 𝜋𝜋 2 𝐸𝐸𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝐼𝐼
(A.3.2,Table.2 [2] ) ; Frequency 𝜔𝜔𝑛𝑛 = �
𝐿𝐿2 𝜇𝜇
; Est I = flexural rigidity of the beam (or
equivalent of a truss type bridge obtained from
previous design of bridges meant for Broad
Gauge (BG) Loadings) ; Modulus of elasticity of
steel Est = 2.0 ×108 kN/m2 ; 𝐹𝐹𝑘𝑘𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 (t) = Static
force at time t due to axle loads 𝑃𝑃𝑘𝑘 (𝑡𝑡) =
𝑚𝑚𝑘𝑘 (𝑡𝑡)𝑔𝑔 = (𝑚𝑚𝑤𝑤 (𝑡𝑡) + 𝑚𝑚𝑏𝑏 (𝑡𝑡) + 𝑚𝑚𝑐𝑐 (𝑡𝑡)) ×
𝑔𝑔 (𝑚𝑚/𝑠𝑠 2 ) where (masses in kg) mw = mass of
wheel and axle, mb = mass from bogie and mc =

** Chief Consultant-Newline Consulting Engineers, India , BE, M-Tech(Structures) ; e-mail:

dbhawalnce@gmail.com 3