An improved dynamic load model for high-speed railway bridges under consideration of vehicle-bridge-interaction

A new load model is needed because the current standards for design and assessment of high-speed railway bridges do not cover a set of newly developed railway vehicles, which present innovative axle arrangements and are faster and heavier than the vehicles considered for the development of the actual load models. Therefore, a parametric high-speed load model needs to be developed so that gaps of the current model are closed and future adaptations of the model to developments in the railway vehicle industry are possible. The doctoral thesis will mainly focus on the following two aspects. Firstly, the development of a load model based on the formulation of an inverse problem, whereas the development is performed independently of the structural configuration and properties. Secondly, a more detailed specification of the additional damping, accounting for vehicle-bridge interaction effects, to define its dependency on bridge and vehicle parameters as well as its range of application and validity.