Proactive maintenance method for fatigue cracks to steel bridge deck without traffic disruption

Author(s):  
Ryo Nakata ◽  
Yukio Adachi

<p>Fatigue damage is a major topic in bridge maintenance. The fatigue damage to steel bridge deck has been dramatically increasing since the first fatigue damage was observed in Hanshin expressway in early 2000s. Insufficient knowledge of bridge fatigue design and unexpected increase of traffic demand and heavy vehicle could be the cause of the fatigue damage.</p><p>Replacement of base pavement course to steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) has been generally used for strengthening of steel decks; however, the countermeasure from the topside of the bridge deck could make serious traffic disruption. Therefore, reactive and proactive maintenance for such steel decks has not been well progressed so far.</p><p>According to the background above, Hanshin expressway has been making an effort on developing new method by strengthening steel deck from the bottom side. The idea of the new method is to enhance fatigue resistance by improving the weld joint between deck plate and U-rib plate. Three potential methods were identified and the effectiveness of those methods was studied in field for making sure of not only fatigue resistance improvement but also field construction.</p><p>This paper will introduce the new retrofit methods for steel deck and describe the effectiveness of those methods.</p>

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Su ◽  
Shilei Wang ◽  
Yan Gao ◽  
Jianlei Liu ◽  
Xudong Shao

A novel ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) layer composite orthotropic steel deck was adopted in the construction of a new bridge in China to improve the fatigue performance of the orthotropic steel deck plate and reduce the disease of surface wearing layer. In situ experiments were conducted to study the UHPC layer’s impact on the behavior of the orthotropic steel deck. The test vehicle loads were applied on the deck plate before and after UHPC layer paving, the stresses where fatigue cracks usually occur and the deflections of critical sections were measured. The test results verified that the UHPC composite steel deck system could significantly reduce the stress of the rib-to-deck connection region and the stress at the bottom toe of rib-to-diaphragm weld. In addition, it slightly influenced the performance of U shape rib, girder web-to-deck and diaphragm cutout.


Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
Minshan Pei ◽  
Xiaodong Liu ◽  
Chuang Yan ◽  
Ya Wei

The steel bridge deck system, directly subjected to the vehicle load, is an important component to be considered in the optimization design of the bridges. Due to its complex structure, the design parameters are coupled with each other, and many fatigue details in the system result in time-consuming calculation during structure optimization. In view of this, a nonlinear optimization method based on the response surface methodology (RSM) is proposed in this study to simplify the design process and to reduce the amount of calculations during optimization. The optimization design of the steel bridge deck system with two-layer pavement on the top of the steel deck plate is taken as an example, the influence of eight structural parameters is considered. The Box-Behnken design is used to construct a sample space in which the eight structural parameters can be distributed evenly to reduce the calculation workload. The finite element method is used to model the mechanical responses of the steel bridge deck system. From the regression analysis by the RSM, the explicit relationships between the fatigue details and the design parameters can be obtained, based on which the nonlinear optimization design of the bridge deck system is conducted. The influence of constraint functions, objective functions, and optimization algorithms is also analyzed. The method proposed in this study is capable of considering the influence of different structural parameters and different optimization objectives according to the actual needs, which will effectively simplify the optimization design of the steel bridge deck system.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1096 ◽  
pp. 562-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yu ◽  
Tao Hong ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Qing Yu Liang

Due to the superior structure style, orthotropic steel bridge deck has been getting more and more widely practical application. The static and fatigue tests of the orthotropic steel bridge deck models were carried out in this research paper, which presented the fatigue damage developing laws, compared the test results with homogeneous test results in existing documents, and according to the relative fatigue accumulative damage theory, the fatigue accumulative damage equations of the sectional specimen and the whole specimen are respectively studied.


Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Xun Qian Xu ◽  
Wei Yang ◽  
Hong Liang Xiang ◽  
Jian Bo Wang ◽  
Xiao Yang

The crack initiation and life prediction of fiber-reinforced asphalt concrete (FRAC) surfacing for steel bridge decks under a cyclic vehicle load are analyzed from the perspective of damage mechanics. The damage field and the stress and strain field evolution rule of a composite beam in fatigue test are studied, and a fatigue failure criterion is proposed for steel deck FRAC surfacing. Bending fatigue tests are performed on composite beams composed of a steel deck and polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-fiber-reinforced Gussasphalt (GA), i.e., GA-PAN, concrete surfacing under different fiber content and temperature conditions. The damage evolution characteristics of GA-PAN concrete surfacing over the steel deck with different fiber lengths and volume ratios are predicted by analyzing the fatigue life equations. The results show that the steel bridge deck FRAC surfacing model can reflect the comprehensive influence of the fiber content and length on the fatigue performance of steel bridge AC. Specifically, a lower temperature results in the fiber more synergistically affecting the fatigue resistance of AC. Theoretically, the service performance of asphalt concrete increases with the increase of fiber length and content. The optimum fiber length and volume ratio of GA-PAN are found to be 9 mm and 0.46–0.48%, respectively, considering the construction workability.


2010 ◽  
Vol 452-453 ◽  
pp. 161-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun Sheng Wang ◽  
Qin Zhang ◽  
Tao Zhang ◽  
Ya Cheng Feng

The modern steel orthotropic decks have been used in steel bridges for 60 years all over the world because of its super structural advantages. Recently, more bridge owners, engineers and researchers pay more attention to the fatigue problem of orthotropic steel decks for a large number of fatigue cracks found in steel bridges. For example, bridge engineers have detected hundreds of fatigue cracks in steel orthotropic deck on the 888-meter long box girder of Humen Bridge only ten years after opening to traffic. How to design or repair the fatigue details in orthotropic steel decks is the critical question to be solved at first step. In current paper, the elaborate numerical analysis model of the orthotropic steel bridge decks was developed using ANSYS software with different floor-beam web cutouts shapes, such as conventional ellipse, circular, trapezoid and Haibach web cutouts. The finite element models were calibrated by static test of one full size orthotropic steel bridge deck model. According to the analysis results, it should select the rational cutout shapes based on actual load and structural conditions in steel bridge deck design and strengthening.


2013 ◽  
Vol 639-640 ◽  
pp. 239-242
Author(s):  
Jian Hua Cheng ◽  
Jian Min Xiong ◽  
Jin Zhi Zhou

Orthotropic plate participates in bridge structure as a part of steel box girder, while in Balinghe Bridge it is used as bridge deck directly to endure the wheel load [1]. In this paper it’s studied systematically the mechanical behavior of orthotropic steel bridge deck in combination with the deck model of Balinghe Bridge, and shows the positions emerging fatigue cracks to provide the basis for future health monitoring and put forward some suggestions.


Author(s):  
Evy Van Puymbroeck ◽  
Wim Nagy ◽  
Hans De Backer

Complex welding operations in orthotropic steel bridge decks introduce residual stresses near the weld region. To estimate fatigue failure of this type of bridge deck, tensile residual yield stresses are usually assumed around the weld region. However, to estimate the residual stress distribution near a weld connection more precisely, a test setup is developed. The weld connection of a closed longitudinal trapezoidal stiffener with the deck plate of an orthotropic bridge deck is investigated. The incremental hole-drilling technique is used to measure the residual stresses with strain gauge rosettes. Strain gauge rosettes are positioned on the deck plate and on a longitudinal stiffener of the orthotropic steel deck. A small hole is drilled through the center of the strain gauge rosettes and strains are measured at incremental depths. The residual stresses are calculated and based on these experimental measurements a distribution of the residual stresses is obtained. Compressive residual stresses exist near the longitudinal stiffener-to-deck plate weld. On the deck plate, the compressive residual stresses are equal to 60% of the yield strength while the compressive residual stresses on the stiffener are 42% of the yield strength. There are tensile residual stresses on both sides of the weld region. However, more research is necessary to confirm this distribution since it is contradictory to expected stresses in literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Gaoxin Wang ◽  
Youliang Ding ◽  
Zhijun Liu ◽  
Jingshu Shao

The fatigue analysis on orthotropic steel bridge decks is a hot topic in bridge engineering field. This study provides one method for fatigue analysis under the combined actions of vehicle loads and pavement temperature. To be specific, taking the steel bridge deck of one cable-stayed bridge as a research object, this study proposes a method of calculating life-cycle fatigue damage of orthotropic steel deck under the combined actions of vehicle loads and pavement temperature. First, a finite element model of steel bridge deck with asphalt pavement is built to analyze the influence of pavement temperature on the fatigue stress of steel bridge deck. Second, a simulation method of fatigue stress caused by random vehicle loads is proposed. Finally, a method of calculating the life-cycle fatigue damage of welded joints under the combined actions of vehicle loads and temperature is proposed. The results show that temperature has a significant effect on fatigue damage, and the cumulative fatigue damage in the rib-to-rib welded joint is significantly greater than that in the deck-to-rib welded joint. The results can provide meaningful references for bridge engineers to carry out fatigue analysis on orthotropic steel bridge decks.


2010 ◽  
Vol 163-167 ◽  
pp. 3511-3516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Ling Zhang ◽  
Yun Gang Zhang ◽  
Yun Sheng Li

In this paper, the stress distribution of the orthotropic steel bridge deck in a suspend bridge under local wheel load is analyzed. Some retrofitted methods are introduced, two of which are studied. One is using the concrete paving layer (CPL), and the other is using the sandwich plate system (SPS) to strengthen the orthotropic steel bridge deck. Local finite element models are established by ANSYS; stress distribution of bridge deck is calculated under the designed vehicle load before and after the deck retrofitted by the CPL or the SPS, and the results are compared with each other. The analysis results indicate that, under wheel pressure load, the orthotropic steel deck appears stress concentration; after the deck was retrofitted no matter by the CPL or the SPS, all the stress peaks decrease obviously, and the fatigue resistance of the orthotropic steel deck increases, which indicate that the two methods are effective to retrofit the orthotropic steel bridge deck. Using the CPL method can lead to lower stress concentration than that of using the SPS method, but the concrete paving layer is easy to crack, so, high performance concrete with high tension strength is needed.


Author(s):  
Huili Wang ◽  
Sifeng Qin ◽  
Ben Wang ◽  
Shaobo Zhou

To calculate the welding-induced residual stresses in U-ribs of the steel deck plate and conduct quantitative analysis of influential factors, the U-ribs of steel deck plate of Xinghai Bay Bridge was taken as the research object. In the ABAQUS finite element software, the local models of U-ribs of steel deck plate were established. Nodal body force loads, i.e., heat generation rate, of the double ellipsoidal heat source models were applied via the compiled subsidiary Dflux program. The welding process of the v-groove welds was simulated, to obtain the residual stresses distribution in the top plate and U-rib plates. The influence of thickness of top plate and angle of welding groove on the residual stresses in the U-ribs were studied. The results show that the welding-induced residual stresses calculated by the numerical method proposed in this paper agree well with the experimental data. The maximum residual stresses in the top plates and the U-rib plates all occur near the welds, which exceeds the yielding limitation of the material. As the thickness of top plate increases, the maximum values of residual stresses in the top plates and U-ribs increase. However, with the increase of groove angle, the maximum values of residual stresses in the top plates and U-rib plates decrease.


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