Numerical investigation of composite steel and precast reinforced concrete transom for Sydney Harbour Bridge under impact loading

![CDATA[The Sydney Harbour Bridge requires the replacement of the timber transoms that currently reside in the railway system. Composite steel and precast reinforced concrete transoms have been proposed as the replacement for the current timber counterparts. In existing studies, it is found that there is little investigation into the effect of derailment loading on reinforced concrete transoms. This paper provides an investigation of derailment impact loading on reinforced concrete transoms and investigates the failure behaviour through means of finite element analysis. The FEA commercial software known as Abaqus was used to investigate the effect of impact loading on the composite concrete transoms. The FE data accuracy was verified by comparing the existing experimental results. From the experimental study and numerical investigation, transoms using Lindapter bolts was shown to perform better than the welded headed shear studs and AJAX bolts. Additionally, the FE models produced in this report were validated by the results of the experimental study; however, further investigation into the plastic deformation is required before proper evaluation of the failure behaviour is determined.]]