Fatigue failure of welded connections at orthotropic bridges 

Journal Title: Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale - Year 2009, Vol 3, Issue 9

Abstract

Orthotropic decks were applied to the long span bridges after World War II due to several advantages, such as light weight, high strength, few deck joints, durability, rapid construction, life-cycle economy. The fatigue problem of orthotropic decks was realized twenty years ago since fatigue failure was found. In the past two decades large amount of studies and investigations were carried out and fruitful achievements were obtained. It was found that most of the fatigue cracks were occurred at the welded connection details, such as rib-to-deck plate, rib-to-diaphragm, and rib-to-diaphragm-to-deck plate (RDDP). These connections are sensitive to fatigue cracking due to high concentrated stress and residual stress at welded connections. In this paper practical fatigue failure cases at the welded connections, ease to occur fatigue cracking, are presented, and analyzed through a numerical modeling of orthotropic deck via FE (finite element) software. Furthermore, the improvement technologies of fatigue are also discussed. The results of the analysis can be contributed to the evaluation of the fatigue design for the orthotropic deck. 

Authors and Affiliations

Z. H. Qian, D. Abruzzese

Keywords

Related Articles

 Experimental investigation of crack initiation and propagation in high- and gigacycle fatigue in titanium alloys by study of morphology of fracture

 Fatigue (high- and gigacycle) crack initiation and its propagation in titanium alloys with coarse and fine grain structure are studied by fractography analysis of fracture surface. Fractured specimens were analyze...

 Novel magnetic composites based on water soluble unsaturated polyester resin and iron oxide nanoparticles

 Magnetic nanocomposites on the basis of water soluble unsaturated polyester resin filled with different amount of iron oxide nanoparticles have been successfully prepared. The mechanical properties of thus pr...

 EBSD-assisted fractographic analysis of crack paths in magnesium alloy

 Magnesium (Mg) alloys are attractive as structural materials due to their light weight and high specific strength. It is well known that Mg alloy has hexagonal close-packed (HCP) structure and only basal slip&nbsp...

 Crack tip fields and mixed mode fracture behaviour of progressively drawn pearlitic steel

 This paper deals with the influence of the cold drawing process on the fracture behaviour of pearlitic steels. To this end, fracture tests under axial loading were performed on steel wires with different drawing...

 Inter-laminar shear stress in hybrid CFRP/austenitic steel

 Bolted joints are the most common solution for joining composite components in aerospace structures. Critical structures such as wing to fuselage joints, or flight control surface fittings use bolted joining tech...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP103011
  • DOI 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.09.11
  • Views 98
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Z. H. Qian, D. Abruzzese (2009). Fatigue failure of welded connections at orthotropic bridges . Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 3(9), 105-112. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-103011