Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations KootK on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Steel reinforced elastomeric bearings

Status
Not open for further replies.

caroengr

Student
Mar 14, 2024
7
I am designing bearings for a railway bridge. Through my research I am designing steel reinforced elastomeric bearings at the fixed and expansion bearings. Is designing for a dowel in the fixed bearings a practical solution for this to limit translation? Also are there any limitations on having a steel top and bottom plate? I am trying to obtain a certain height and hoping this will work.
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Typically, the restraint would external to an elastomeric bearing. Usually, the anchor bolts would extend through a hole in the sole plate beside the bearing pad. If the restraint required exceeds the bending capacity of the anchor bolts, you can add a block to the edge of the underside of the sole plate to decrease the moment arm of the anchor bolts. Although, at a fixed bearing, where only the rotation and compression need to be accommodated, the bearings can be fairly short. If it's a long bridge, I would recommend designing the fixed and expansion bearings separately, in order to minimize the height of the fixed bearing. Another note for the fixed bearings - wider is better for minimizing the height of the bearing, but worse for the thickness of the sole plate. Optimizing the bearings is a multi-parameter balancing act, with typically lots of iterations to get to the best result, especially the first few times, until you get a 'feel' for a good starting point.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor