Impact Assessment of Railway Bridge Construction Schedule, based on 3D Geotechnical Finite Element Modeling

Abstract

The increasing demand for high-speed railways has risen, to solve the "age-old" problem of bridge abutments, the step between the backfill and the bridge deck. Examples prove that inadequate technical solutions can generate damage that may require long-term speed restrictions or lead to short maintenance cycles, significantly increasing the total cost of ownership. The problems associated with the transition zones require complex analysis. The complex interaction of structural elements with different stiffnesses and different dynamic behavior varies over time due to the time-dependent behavior of the soil, and in addition, a bridge deck and its connecting elements can be constructed in several sequences. This study investigated a typical single-span railway bridge and its soil environment using PLAXIS 3D geotechnical finite element software. Different constitutive soil models were used to approximate the behavior of the bridge and the connecting elements. To model the soil behavior, the HS-small constitutive model was implemented. Loads of the structure are transferred onto the subsoil by 60 cm diameter piles modeled as embedded piles. Six different construction schedules were analyzed using time-domain analyses. The importance of high-speed railways was highlighted, and a 250 km/h train speed was applied, using dynamic analysis. The study focuses on the effect of different construction schedules on settlement, consolidation time, the behavior of the transition, and the substructure movements. The results of this study show that geotechnical approaches by themselves are not enough to solve the problem of the transition zone, highlighting the collaboration of geotechnical, structural and railway engineers.