Dynamic identification of paradela historic railway bridge

Abstract

Paradela Bridge is a metallic bridge located along the bank of the Tua River in northern Portugal. While the bridge is not currently in service, its structure is representative of many metallic truss structures built across the country between the 19th and the 20th century. The construction of the Paradela Bridge was completed in 1886 and served for about 120 years connecting northern Portugal. Tua Line belongs to the Douro area that UNESCO recently declared as world heritage. This work acquires its importance since it might serve as an insight for the study of many other similar structures all over the country. This paper comprises a historic investigation of archived documents, an on-site survey to evaluate its present conditions, a dynamic testing and the construction and calibration of numerical models in finite element analysis software for structural assessment and capacity rating estimation