Moderne Eisenbahnbrücken als DickblechTrogbrücken – Optimierung der Auslegung für Ermüdung und Lebenszyklusbetrachtung.

Abstract: Modern railway bridges as thick‐plate trough bridges – Optimization of fatigue design and life‐cycle analyses. Innovative improved design solutions of bridge constructions increasingly aim at maintenance reduced structures where the utilization and surrounding traffic routes are affected only in minor extent by rehabilitation and maintenance works. As part of the FOSTA‐AiF‐research project „Holistic Assessment of steel‐ and composite railway bridges according to criteria of sustainability” (P978) specific investigations were carried out in order to optimize different railway bridge types by improving single structural details and construction variants types. To assess the benefits of these optimized constructions within the life‐cycle of the bridge, the conventional and improved constructions were compared with each other by applying sustainability analyses. This paper deals with the evaluation of the trough bridges with thick track plates which was especially developed for rail traffic constructions and which is also known as thick‐plate trough bridges. It focusses on questions related to the fatigue design, uses large scale tests for verifications and provides recommendations for the construction and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]