New fatigue load models for assessing railway bridges in Europe

Train axle load measurements performed between 2012 and 2019 at 87 locations in the Dutch railway network are used to evaluate fatigue of railway bridges. The theoretical fatigue damage using realistic influence lines is determined for the measured loads and for the load model from Eurocode EN 1991-2 Annex D. It appears that this load model is (very) conservative for most cases, but unconservative for a few cases. Large differences in fatigue relevant loads are observed between different tracks. Two alternative load models that more closely represent the measured railway traffic in terms of trains and fatigue damage are presented, together with a third model based on historical train types. These models use track-specific traffic characteristics. Uncertainties are quantified and safety factors are established from a reliability analysis.

Automated summary

Train axle load measurements between 2012 and 2019 at 87 locations in the Dutch railway network are used to evaluate fatigue of railway bridges. The theoretical fatigue damage is calculated for the measured loads and the load model from Eurocode EN 1991-2 Annex D. Results show that the Eurocode load model is (very) conservative for most cases, but unconservative for a few cases. Large differences in fatigue relevant loads are observed between different tracks. Alternative load models are proposed based on track-specific traffic characteristics, and uncertainties are quantified and safety factors are established.