Experimental Testing of the Weathering Steel Road Bridge in Ostrava

Abstract

Weathering structural steel has been used for various outdoor load-carrying structures (even without anti-corrosion surface protection) in the world as well as in the Czech Republic for about 45 years [1, 2, 3]. Load-carrying structures are designed for service life of as many as 100 years and the weathering steel can be used as a standard structural material without any corrosion protection. The weathering steel is able to create a protective patina layer on the surface in favourable environment; it means suitable atmospheric and structural conditions. A lot of constructions built from the weathering steel in the Czech Republic have been assessed and inspected in last few years. This paper describes the new developed method for experimental measuring of real corrosion losses on typical surfaces of bridges.

Corrosion Processes on Weathering Steel Railway Bridge in Prague

“…The measurement of patina thickness after one-year exposure may serve as a utility for realistic estimation of corrosion rates. The same dependence with high overall correlation factor ρ = 0.91 was observed in results from corrosion tests on the road bridge in Ostrava [11] and over the Ostravice River in Frýdek-Místek [12]. Figure 7 Graphic relationship between the measured corrosion losses and corrosion products thickness Table 4 Chemical analysis of corrosion products and protective ability index [13,14] Chemical analysis of corrosion layers was performed and the PAI index was calculated as well.…”

“…The specimens are flat panels made of steel S355J2WP with a nominal size 150x100 mm and with thickness 1.5 mm [10]. The specimens are attached to the structure with a special anchoring device [11], see Figure 2. Three specimens are installed on typical surfaces of the structure.…”

Prediction of Corrosion Processes on Weathering Steel Bridges

“…The programme of experimental atmospheric corrosion tests on weathering steel bridges has been prepared to state more precisely the coefficients  1 through  4 of the analytical model ( 1). The experimental testing on weathering steel bridges in the Czech Republic started in 2011 on the road bridge in Frýdek-Místek, followed by the railway bridge in Prague in 2012 and three motorway bridges in 2013 [5]. It is planned to install corrosion specimens on another ten bridges in 2014 and 2015.…”

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Welds in Steel Structural Element

“…Numerical modeling finds its application in all sorts of areas of engineering and many high-quality papers and studies have already been published in this area of the research [10][11][12][13][14]. The results of numerical modeling have usually limited use without the experimental verification or without the load test [15,16]. Test results may lead to calibration and validation of mathematical model, which should ensure compliance of the numerical model and the actual behavior of the investigated structure [17].…”