Open Access

ARTICLE

Evaluation of Fatigue Remaining Life of Typical steel plate girder Bridge under Railway Loading

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1 CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre, TTTI Post, Chennai, India, 600113, nawal1234@gmail.com
2 Corresponding Author: Bridge Engineering Division, CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre, TTTI Post, Chennai, India, 600113, sasmalsap@gmail.com, saptarshi@serc.res.in

Structural Longevity 2013, 10(3), 151-166. https://doi.org/10.3970/sl.2013.010.151

Abstract

This paper presents various fatigue damage models available in the literature for calculating the damage index due to fatigue loading. Discussion on the effect of load level, load sequence and load interaction on the fatigue damage of the bridges is also presented. Experimental studies conducted to obtain the strain responses at the different critical sections of a typical steel plate girder bridge under railway loadings are briefly described. Strain time histories obtained at different locations including at the weld zone are used to evaluate the fatigue remaining life of the bridge considered in this study. Load spectrum is developed by considering different types of railway loadings and under different speeds. It has been found that in low stress-low cycle cases, which are very common in bridges, the damage indices obtained by using different models proposed by researchers are not in close agreement and sometimes, the results are unrealistic since the low stress variations obtained from the experiments need to be considered. Further, it is opined that an exclusive model is necessary for such cases which can facilitate to reasonably calculate the fatigue remaining life of bridges.

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