A model considering the longitudinal track-bridge interaction in ballasted railway bridges subjected to high-speed trains

In this paper, a dynamic interaction model of the coupled system of railway bridge, foundation, subsoil, ballast, track, and high-speed train is presented, with special emphasis on the longitudinal interaction between the track and the bridge structure, taking into account the flexibility of the ballast. After a description of the model of this interaction system, the equations of motion are given separately for each subsystem. The discretization of the bedded rails is performed by two different approaches. In the first approach, the deflection of the rails is expanded into the eigenfunctions of a finitely long bedded beam representing the rails. In the second, simplified approach, the track response is represented by a superposition of the static deflection of the infinitely long bedded beam due to a concentrated load. The coupling of the bridge structure with the track is achieved by a component mode synthesis technique, which in the first approach leads to a representation of the equations of motion in state-space. A discrete substructure technique is used to couple this subsystem with the train model. The two presented strategies are verified by comparison with results of a finite element model of this interaction system. Several application examples reveal the influence of the horizontal track-bridge interaction and other modeling parameters on the dynamic bridge response.