Assessment of Bridge Remaining Fatigue Life through Field Strain Measurement
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 11, Issue 6
Abstract
With the aging of existing steel bridges and the accumulated stress cycles under traffic loads, assessment of remaining fatigue life for continuing service has become more important than ever, especially for decisions on structure replacement, deck replacement, or other major retrofits. Experience from engineering practice indicates that fatigue analysis based on specification loads and distribution factors usually underestimates the remaining fatigue life of existing bridges by overestimating the live load stress ranges. Fatigue evaluation based on field-measured stress range histograms under actual traffic load proves to be a more accurate and efficient method for existing bridges. This paper describes the application of such a method in assessing the remaining fatigue life of bridge structures. Current AASHTO specifications for fatigue evaluation of existing bridges are reviewed and compared. Case studies of three major highway bridges are discussed. Finally, a procedure is proposed for evaluating fatigue life of existing bridges through field strain measurement.
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References
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 11 • Issue 6 • November 2006
Pages: 737 - 744
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 9, 2004
Accepted: Apr 15, 2005
Published online: Nov 1, 2006
Published in print: Nov 2006
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