Experimental and Numerical Investigations on the Spherical Steel Bearing Capacity of New Anti-Separation Design

To solve the issues of slippage and dislodging caused by insufficient grout compactness in railway bridge spherical steel bearings, a novel kind of anti-separation spherical steel bearing is presented. Firstly, a comparative test model was meticulously designed and constructed for the bearing-stone assembly, encompassing both the traditional spherical steel bearing and the innovative anti-separation spherical steel bearing. Next, mechanical performance testing and finite element simulation analysis were completed. Finally, an empirical equation for the vertical load-strain fitting of the bearing was established. The results demonstrate that, under the maximum vertical static load, the convex spherical crown anti-separation design of the new anti-dislodging bearing is not sensitive to the bearing performance of the bearing-bedding stone combination. All indexes also meet the specifications. Under the action of cyclic load, the error of each parameter between finite element analysis and test results is less than 7%, which shows that the new anti- separation spherical bearing has higher bearing capacity and better fatigue resistance; the fitted value of the established bearing vertical load-strain calculation formula is in agreement with the test value by more than 0.95, which can predict whether the new anti-separation bearing fails.