Vibration suppression for high-speed railway bridges using tuned mass dampers

This paper deals with the applicability of passive tuned mass dampers (PTMDs) to suppress train-induced vibration on bridges. A railway bridge is modeled as an Euler–Bernouli beam and a train is simulated as series of moving forces, moving masses or moving suspension masses to investigate the influence of various vehicle models on the bridge features with or without PTMD. According to the train load frequency analysis, the resonant effects will occur as the modal frequencies of the bridges are close to the multiple of the impact frequency of the train load to the bridge. A single PTMD system is then designed to alter the bridge dynamic characteristics to avoid excessive vibrations. Numerical results from simply supported bridges of Taiwan High-Speed Railway (THSR) under German I.C.E., Japanese S.K.S. and French T.G.V. trains show that the proposed PTMD is a useful vibration control device in reducing bridge vertical displacements, absolute accelerations, end rotations and train accelerations during resonant speeds, as the train axle arrangement is regular. It is also found that the inner space of bridge box girder of THSR is wide and deep enough for the installation and movement of PTMD.