Citation

Wang CS, Chen AR, Chen WZ. Zhongguo Gonglu Xuebao 2006; 19(2): 42-48.

Affiliation

Key Laboratory for Bridge and Tunnel of Shaanxi Province, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710064, China

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Chang'an da xue)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A fracture mechanics method to evaluate the remaining fatigue life and service safety of old riveted steel bridges was proposed. According to the fatigue failure character of riveted members, a simplified fracture mechanics model (SFMM) was developed. Since SFMM could not incorporate the influence of the riveted details and pin load upon fatigue crack growth, an alternative riveted member fracture mechanics model (RMFMM) was proposed in this paper. Furthermore, a fracture finite element program was developed to calculate the geometry function of RMFMM. With the SFMM and RMFMM, the remaining fatigue life of all the vital members in Zhejiang Road Bridge was calculated through the simulation of crack growth. The calculation results show that the fatigue life of RMFMM is shorter 35% than SFMM, which indicates that the influence of the riveted details and pin load upon fatigue life is remarkable. In order to assure the normal service safety, the ultrasonic inspection intervals of SFMM and RMFMM are 4 years and 2 years respectively. The ultrasonic inspection interval is beyond 100 years for assuring the limit load capacity safety, which do not need to be considered in the bridge normal service life span.