Fatigue Durability Evaluation of Trough to Deck Plate Welded Joint of Orthotropic Steel Deck

Abstract

The present study is intended as analysis investigations of fatigue durability of the trough to deck plate welded joint failed at weld root in deck plate. The investigations are carried out on the basis of three key factors: fatigue strengths of the welded details obtained by analysis method in conjunction with fatigue tests, stress ranges by FEM analyses with a unit wheel load, and the loads and their frequencies for the fatigue evaluations are the wheel loads in service, represented by an equivalent wheel load, assumed from the axle load measurements. Consistency between fatigue strength and stress range is simply demonstrated. Using this method for fatigue evaluation, it is found that large-rib-deck model has longer fatigue life than standard-deck models. An increase in deck plate thickness may prolong fatigue life of the orthotropic steel deck. Load distribution due to the rigidity of pavement may also help enhancement the fatigue life.

Remote nondestructive evaluation technique using infrared thermography for fatigue cracks in steel bridges

“…The through‐deck crack is very dangerous because it directly leads to accidents due to cave‐in of the road. Therefore, several studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanism involved in fatigue crack initiation and propagation …”

Fatigue Tests and Failure Mechanism of Rib-to-Deck Welded Joints in Steel Bridge

“…Zheng et al improved the fatigue performance of single-sided rib-to-deck welded joints by changing the thickness of U-ribs [13]. Through finite element analysis, Ya et al found that in a large-rib-deck model, increasing the thickness of the deck and improving the rigidity of the pavement were conducive to improving the life of the orthotropic steel deck [14]. Kolstein obtained the fatigue strength of rib-to-deck welded joints under different fatigue failure modes by summarizing a fatigue test 3.…”