Simplified Evaluation Method for Running Safety of Railway Structures in Consideration of Nonlinear Behavior

Abstract

In order to efficiently determine the weak points of the running safety in railway sections during large-scale earthquakes or existing structures with low yield seismic intensity, this paper proposed a simple evaluation method for running safety of railway vehicle during large scale earthquakes based on numerical simulations which quantified the degree of influence of nonlinear behavior of structures on the wheel derailment limit. The method can evaluate the occurrence of derailment only from the structural response such as the acceleration of the structure top and the angular rotation at the structural boundary.