Influence of the calculation models on the dynamic response of 75 steel, composite and concrete bridges

For the verification of railway bridges under high speed traffic, dynamic calculations have to be performed in many cases to evaluate the effect of resonance for certain velocities. The quality of the results depends on the level of detail of both, the bridge model and the vehicle model. Measurements on existing bridges showed, that dynamic calculations using simplified models tend to over-estimate the response of the bridge structures. This article introduces three methods to reduce the computed bridge response by using more realistic calculation models. The influence of measured damping ratios, load distribution and a multi body model of the Railjet train is evaluated for 75 existing simply supported bridge structures of the Austrian railway network. Depending on the bridge parameters, the possible reduction of vertical accelerations for each method is evaluated.