Bridge analysis, design + assessment

Case Studies - Rail Projects

LUSAS Bridge is used by engineers worldwide for all types of rail bridge analysis, design and assessment / load rating. 

These case studies show illustrative uses of the software, with the most recently added article at the top. Country flags relate to the project's location.


Currie Road Bridge

  • Detailed modelling of a single span half-through steel girder railway underbridge with a 50 degree skew to reduce number of deck bearings used and assist with checks to specific design codes.

"Generating a full 3D finite element model using LUSAS allowed us to complete the design rapidly and efficiently, and optimize the section sizes with high precision." 

Dr Fabien Rollet, Senior Engineeer, Atkins


Dawlish Station Footbridge

  • Design and analysis of the first Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite bridge installed at a mainline station in the UK that, on completion, became the first Grade II listed FRP bridge.

"LUSAS is my first-choice tool for any of the structural analysis we do. For the non-standard work we undertake we need a general-purpose finite element analysis package that is not narrowly tailored to a particular market segment. LUSAS fulfils that role, letting us analyse and design with materials or for applications not yet well defined in civil engineering codes."

Ian Smith, Director, Tony Gee and Partners


DART Blue Line Extension

  • Design of bridges on a 4.75 mile light rail extension involving rail track-structure interaction analysis of two multi-span precast concrete beam structures and the analysis of a steel through girder span.

"An independent verification of the thermal interaction results obtained using LUSAS for the Rowlett Creek bridge was carried out by engineers in another Gannett Fleming office using different software. The results were strikingly similar, verified the LUSAS modelling method, and illustrated just how efficient LUSAS is at modelling track-structure interaction effects for these types of bridges."

Eric Dues, Principal Engineer, Gannett Fleming Engineers and Architects, P.C


BEBO Arch System Modelling

  • Soil-structure interaction modelling and staged construction analysis of all backfilling and overfilling stages of the first BEBO arch structure to be built in the UK.

"BEBO engineers have a lot of experience in the use of finite element analysis software, not only for the design of projects involving soil-structure interaction, but also for a variety of materially nonlinear analysis, particularly of reinforced concrete structures. To assist us with the design of our range of BEBO Arch Bridge Solutions, and for our general structural analysis requirements, LUSAS meets our needs perfectly."

Gian Nick, Managing Director, BEBO Arch International AG


Seismic analysis of viaduct substructures on the Dubai Metro

  • Modelling of concrete viaduct structures involving seismic analysis to AASHTO LRFD to derive design moments from seismic and modified BS 5400 load combinations for use with pile and pier design.

"The use of precast concrete elements for the deck and for key substructure components, and the use of LUSAS software to assist with our design process, all helped to ensure that the viaduct construction progressed as planned."

David A Smith, Regional Head of Bridge Engineering, Atkins


Analysis and design of footbridges for the Dubai Metro

  • 3D modelling and eigenvalue analysis of a large number of steel truss footbridges to derive mode shapes and mass participation factors to assist with their design.

"The use of a modular design approach in conjunction with detailed LUSAS analyses of the main footbridge types enabled us to design the large number of footbridges required for the project in a very timely and efficient manner."

David A Smith, Regional Head of Bridge Engineering, Atkins


Rail track / structure interaction analysis for the Dubai Metro

  • 2D modelling of rail / structure interaction to the UIC 773-4 code to verifify spreadsheet calculations and prove otherwise potentially problematic results.

"By using LUSAS to investigate these span arrangements we got a more accurate assessment of the rail track interaction effects and obtained values that did not exceed design criteria"

Rachel Jones, Atkins


Rail track interation analysis for the Honan high speed railway

  • Evaluation of induced rail stresses and track displacements on a 1.8km long viaduct structure from rail temperature, acceleration and braking loading.

"Correct modelling of the nonlinear behaviour of ballast, and of the interaction between the ballast and the rail track is not easy to do manually, so the LUSAS Rail Track analysis option, which handles this automatically, was very useful to us in this respect".

Mr Jeongil Kim, Engineering Manager, Saman Engineering


Automated track-structure interaction analysis

  • Fast assessment of track/bridge interaction forces in rails from thermal and in-service train loading
A LUSAS product option, permits track-structure interaction analysis to the International Union of Railways Code UIC 774-3. It allows models to be automatically built from data defined in MS Excel spreadsheets, an analysis to be run, and results rapidly obtained in spreadsheet or LUSAS results file formats.

Taiwan High Speed Railway
  • Pile-soil interaction modelling and automated model building for multi-modal spectral response analysis of viaduct structures

"The versatility of LUSAS Bridge coupled with the technical expertise within our Group helped produce an economical design for the extreme seismic performance criteria of the Taiwan project with its demanding programme and construction constraints."

Kandiah Kuhendran, Project Design Manager, FaberMaunsell


Neasden Lane overbridge

  • Successful linear analysis re-assessment of bridge deck previously failed for 40 tonne vehicle loading

 

"We found it quick and simple to upgrade an existing model in order to include new features or de-activate existing ones within a 3D model. In addition the results processing facilities were particularly useful in identifying the critical areas of the deck."

Sameer Khan, Senior Engineer, Tony Gee & Partners


Forsmo Bridge, Sweden

Forsmo Bridge

  • Assessment of a steel truss arch railway bridge using iterative model development from strain gauge results to assess Ultimate, Serviceability and Fatigue Limit States.
"Ramboll successfully used strain gauge measurements on the Forsmo Bridge in Sweden to fine-tune a LUSAS Bridge model prior to carrying-out an in-depth assessment of the structure for a proposed increase in freight train axle loading."

Newark High Speed Rail Bridge

  • Detailed dynamics analysis using Interactive Modal Dynamics techniques
"The Interactive Modal Dynamics (IMD) techniques used greatly reduced the time required to assess the dynamic response of the structure for numerous combinations of different moving train loads and speeds."

Bridge at London Road, Hackbridge

Bridge assessment for plate girder buckling

  • Buckling assessment of a steel girder bridge for 40 tonne lorries

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Any modelling, design and analysis capabilities described are dependent upon the LUSAS software product, version and option in use.