aDepartment of Civil Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
bDepartment of Civil Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Abstract:
This paper introduces an analytical procedure to derive equations of motion for the monorail train–bridge interaction based on Lagrange’s formulation to investigate riding comfort of moving monorail trains on bridges. A 15 degrees-of-freedom dynamic model is assumed for a car in a monorail train that consists of driving, steering, and stabilizing wheels. It is based on the finite element method for modal analysis using three-dimensional models for a monorail bridge. Dynamic behaviors of a rationalized monorail bridge with a simplified structural system are investigated in comparison with those of a conventional monorail bridge using the developed analytical method. The riding comfort of running trains on the rationalized monorail bridge based on ISO 2631 is estimated using 1/3 octave band spectral analysis. Observations indicate that a rational type bridge does not engender difficulties related to the riding comfort of the monorail train, even when considering the longest traveling time of passengers between terminals.