Risk Assessment of a High-Speed Railway Bridge System Based on an Improved Response Surface Method

A refined three-dimensional finite element interaction model between the high-speed train and railway bride deck has been developed in the present study. Analytical predictions of vertical deflections for a railway bridge are compared with in-situ test results and a good agreement is achieved. Then, input variables employed in the analytical comparisons are selected as random variables for the limit state functions. followed by risk assessment. For this purpose, a linear adaptive weighted response surface method has been developed and applied. A typical railway bridge has been selected and the limit state functions are employed from UIC and Korean specifications in the comparative studies. The results reveal that Korean specifications give significantly risky reliability indices in comparison with UIC specifications. It is thus encouraged from the above that the present linear adaptive weighted response surface method can be an alternative for the fast estimation of nonlinear structural systems.