Monitoring and Numerical Analyses of the Steel Railway Arch Bridge: A Case Study

Abstract The subject of research is a steel arch-tied bridge at a high-speed railway line in Poland. After the construction was completed, a resonance phenomenon was observed at the bridge, consisting of the occurrence of intense (visible to the unaided eye) undamped vibrations of some vertical hangers in the horizontal direction, transverse to the track axis. These vibrations occurred without the presence of a railway load on the bridge. Before the bridge was put into operation, an acceptance static and dynamic load test was performed, and then the bridge deck vibrations were monitored for a year. The research during dynamic loads testing included both quasi-static (10 km/h) and high-speed (200 km/h) testing train passages. The vertical displacement measurements were carried out in three cross sections of the span, and the acceleration of vibrations on girders and selected hangers was also measured. Next, an innovative system for determining displacements indirectly using inertial sensors (inclinometers and accelerometers) was used for bridge deck vibration monitoring. The primary aim of the research was to investigate the possibility of assessing the safe operation of the bridge using a monitoring system consisting of a limited number of inertial sensors. The second aim was to verify the feasibility of calibrating the numerical model based on the results of dynamic load testing. Numerical analyses of the behavior of the bridge during the passage of trains with speeds up to 200 km/h were carried out. The developed and calibrated numerical model provides additional information about the overall structural vibrations, facilitating the interpretation of outcomes of the monitoring system. No significant impact of hanger vibrations on the monitored displacements and accelerations of the bridge deck vibrations during the passage of trains was found.