Innovative simulation method of the spherical steel bearing applied to high-speed railway bridges

The spherical steel bearings (SSBs) has been gradually replaced traditional rubber bearings and extensively applied to high-speed railway (HSR) bridges in China, due to their durability and serviceability. Nevertheless, SSB is generally simplified to the ordinary constraints in the finite element model, which cannot reflect its detailed mechanical characteristics, especially its seismic performance. To provide a more precisely simulation, an innovative and simplified finite element simulation method is proposed and the combined element group is developed in ANSYS. The primary parameters were determined by means of the performance test of SSB. The finite element model of SSB applied to a single-span HSR simply supported girder bridge was established through the proposed method. The seismic performance of the SSB was further investigated. A shake table test was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed simulation method. It is found that the numerical results could have a good agreement with the experiment, namely, the proposed method is feasible and efficient.