Performance Improvement on Plate Girder Bridges Through Continuous Welded Rail

판형교 장대화에 따른 성능 개선

The challenging aspect of CWR (continuous welded rail) is the additional axial forces in rails, mainly due to the thermal expansion of steel plate girder and rail itself. It has been found that these axial forces are proportional to girder length, total bridge length and bolt tightening forces. Also these forces are dependent to girder support conditions, types of bearings and their arrangements. With CWR, the authors' previous studies show that performance improvements like noise reduce, fatigue resistances and bearing durability increment can be expected. In addition to these effects, secondary effects due to the semi integral behavior between rail and bridge girder also can be expected. Special bearings which can reduce the absolute maximum axial forces have been developed, and applied to real 100m span bridge. The performance improvements were verified through site measurements and numerical analysis. The purpose of this study is to confirm the expected performance improvement aspects of steel plate girder bridges with CWR. To verify these aspects, girder stiffness changes, rail axial force changes, girder displacements and noise level were thoroughly measured and compared.