The Influence of Slender Pier Structures of Two Railway Viaducts on the Bridge Dynamics

摘要

In designing railway viaducts with limited spans of 35 meter and continuous rails, severe deformations and acceleration restrictions are demanded in the Eurocodes. Both verifications, in vertical and in horizontal direction are mostly done separately and with simplified models. In the case of two railway viaducts recently built in Belgium, slender pier structures were needed for architectural reasons. Using a simplified model of the structure could lead to stiff constructions and does not take into account vertical and lateral deformations of the piers which may influence the bridge dynamics. This paper examines the influence of these deformations to the bridge dynamics by using detailed finite element modelling of the whole structure. The results show that the combined deformations hardly influence the bridge dynamics.