Study of Fatigue-Induced Cracks in the Connection Plates of Skewed Highway Bridges

Fatigue-induced cracking is a failure mode that may be experienced by some steel bridges after reaching their original design life, in particular bridge structures that have experienced increasing traffic volume and weight, deteriorating components, as well as a large number of stress cycles. This paper presents a case study of fatigue assessment of a steel interstate highway bridge through real time monitoring under traffic. The bridge is a skewed single-span composite steel I-girder structure with K-type cross-frame utilizing bent-plate connections. The study also included numerical analysis using 3D global finite element models. Based on the simulated traffic flow, statistical dynamic responses such as displacements and stress-ranges were studied for the cause of fatigue cracks that occurred in some cross-frame connections. Meanwhile, long-term field monitoring was also conducted. Furthermore, the influence of connection plate configuration and bracing system configuration was studied using a series of controlled finite element tests. Based on the information from the field tests, simulated numerical analytical results were verified. Thus, the performance of highway bridges under truck load can be predicted in a more realistic way to estimate the fatigue performance of highway bridges.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFF20 Standing Committee on Steel Bridges.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Zhao, Gengwen
    • Fu, Chung C
    • Saad, Tim
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2016

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 17p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01592825
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 16-3687
  • Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 7 2016 10:18AM