Fatigue verification of orthotropic bridge decks with hot-spot method – Background to TS 1993-1-901
article
The design of orthotropic bridge decks (OBD) is driven by fatigue. The Eurocode on fatigue of steel structures – prEN 1993-1-9:2023 – provides fatigue resistance (S N) curves for relevant details in OBD. These curves are to be used with the far field (nominal) stress. However, due to the complex geometry and loading of OBD, the nominal stress is not well defined for many details. In addition, cracks have been found in practice in OBD at locations for which S-N curves are not provided. In order to overcome these issues, experimental and numerical studies are carried out on the use of local stresses (hot-spot stresses where possible) for the fatigue design of OBD. The different stress extraction method also implies the use of different S-N curves. A large number of fatigue tests carried out in the past have been re-evalu ated to determine the hot-spot stress S-N curves. Additional fatigue tests have been carried out for details lacking data. The study has resulted in a guideline to design OBD for fatigue with the hot-spot stress method. This guideline, TS 1993-1- 901:2023, will be published as a Technical Specification (TS) to the standard prEN 1993-1-9:2023.
TNO Identifier
991804
Source
CE/Papers, 6(3/4), pp. 2564-2569.
Pages
2564-2569