Due to structural vibrating displacement caused by earthquakes adversely affecting the safety of running railway vehicles, it is essential to establish a sound method to assess the effects while designing railway structures seismically. This paper examines the seismic behavior of running railway vehicles and proposes a code-type provision to assess the running safety based on the results of comparison of the assessment indices: SI (Spectral Intensity) and PV (Peak Velocity). Moreover, to enable simple assessment of the running safety for a common seismic design, a nomogram based on the assessment index of spectral intensity omitting any calculation in seismic design of railway structures has been prepared for the purpose.

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