The Characteristics and Estimated Stiffness of Rubber Pads for Railway Bridges

철도교량용 고무패드의 특성 및 강성 추정기법

This study analyzed the characteristics of four kinds of bridge rubber pads and suggested how to determine the stiffness the pads. The stiffness of rubber pads can be estimated by a direct static test. In the procedure to estimate the stiffness of a pad, the dead load(preload) of a bridge and live load of a vehicle are considered. The polyurethane rubber pads have larger hardness than natural and chloroprene rubber pads and thus carry larger load bearing capacity. In addition, they showed higher stiffness with the same shape factor than the others and thus are more avaliable as for bridge bearings. Although natural and chloroprene rubber pads are elongated to large deformation in horizontal direction due to vertical loads, polyurethane rubber pads almost do not generate horizontal deformation due to vertical loads regardless to the thickness and hardness of the pads. Therefore, they do not need reinforced plate to restrict horizontal deformation.