BOYNE RAILWAY VIADUCT - STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT

This paper describes an analysis of the Boyne Railway Viaduct, as shown in Figure 1. The Boyne Viaduct is a three span simply supported structure, constructed in 1932 to replace the original wrought iron bridge. The Viaduct is constructed of riveted mild steel lattice girders and comprises one 81m and two 43m spans. The bridge carries both passenger and freight rail traffic. The assessment of the bridge involved both static and dynamic analyses. The project's first stage involved the development of computer code and a three dimensional model to analyse various static load cases and axle positions. Validation of the computer code was carried out by comparing the results from the static analysis with those from previous work obtained from Strudl software. The second stage required the modification of the computer code to enable a dynamic analysis to be carried out. These dynamic analyses yielded values for the natural frequencies and mode shapes and gave the response of the structure to moving train loads. The developed dynamic analysis software was checked by comparison with the ANSYS Finite Element package. Validation of the model was achieved by instrumenting the bridge and monitoring the bridge's response to both static and dynamic loads. Comparison and comment on the correlation between the two sets of theoretical predictions and the measured values for deflections and natural frequencies is made in the paper. Finally, an assessment of the factor of safety of the bridge from both a maintenance and an operational perspective is described. For the covering abstract see ITRD E106406.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0727728547
• Corporate Authors:

  Thomas Telford Limited

  London,   United Kingdom 
• Authors:
  • Gallagher, R
  • O'DWYER, D
  • HARTNETT, M
• Conference:
  • BRIDGE MANAGEMENT 4 - INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, ASSESSMENT AND REPAIR
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 450-8

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridges; Durability; Evaluation and assessment; Mathematical models; Railroad tracks; Stresses
• Geographic Terms: Ireland
• ITRD Terms: 3455: Bridge; 5910: Durability; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 8049: Ireland; 6473: Mathematical model; 5575: Stress (in material)
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00801572
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• ISBN: 0-7277-2854-7
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Nov 8 2000 12:00AM