ABSTRACT
This paper deals with a proposal for determining and quantifying the structural resilience of railway bridges in reinforced concrete using a computational modeling technique. In the technical literature, structural resilience is a quantitative parameter related to the ability of an asset or its parts to resist eventual damage events (explosions, impacts, fires, or overloads) to be efficiently rehabilitated in the face of loss of performance caused by fortuitous events. Thus, three-dimensional computational models were developed based on real explosion events (unusual disturbance) that caused damage to some structural elements of the evaluated asset using CSiBridge v. 21. A FNA (Fast Non-Linear Analysis) dynamic time history analysis was used, which, according to the technical literature, produces greater accuracy and efficiency when compared to the direct integration technique. Damping was also used for all vibration modes. A soil-structure interaction law was applied to the asset’s foundations with elastic springs calibrated according to the geometric characteristics of the foundation and soil elements, which produced confinement in the infrastructure elements. The elastic supports in neoprene bridge bearings were modeled using Winkler springs according to the characteristics of the elements used in the construction of the asset and the law of representation of stiffness. The results obtained allowed quantification of the resilience of the degraded structural elements through the dynamic responses obtained in the passage of the railway composition due to the time used during rehabilitation and reinforcement. In this way, the capacity of the structural elements affected by the explosion unusual event was measured and the recovery capacity was evaluated. The proposed proposal opens new horizons for a quantitative assessment of the resilience of structural elements of railway bridges due to unusual degradation events, repair time, and efficient recovery.
