Diagnosis and Mitigation of Fatigue Damage in Longitudinal Diaphragms of Cable-Stayed Bridges
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 11
Abstract
Premature fatigue cracking in the tube-gusset plate connection of longitudinal diaphragms has been observed in long-span cable-stayed bridges, resulting in undesirable stress distribution of the decks and costly repair efforts. Based on field inspection and finite-element (FE) simulation, this paper presents a diagnosis of the fatigue damage, and it is found that under the vehicle loads the connections are subjected to large stress cycles and significant stress concentration exists around the cope holes. The secondary stresses caused by bending result in different degrees of cracking among the eight locations of the diaphragm within a chamber. To mitigate such damage, several retrofit measures, including plug welding at the slot end, crack-stop holes, welded plates, and bolted channels, were applied. According to field observation and FE simulation, it is found that although the plug welding, crack-stop holes, and welded plates may slightly mitigate the cracking, they cannot significantly elongate fatigue lives. The bolted steel channel connections, however, have an acceptable life without decreasing the stiffness of the diaphragms.
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Acknowledgments
Support from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu under Grant No. BK20130023, the Education Department of Jiangsu under Grant No. JHB201 2-1, and the Graduate Research Innovation Project of Jiangsu Province under Grant No. KYLX15-0087 is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 11 • November 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 26, 2015
Accepted: Apr 19, 2016
Published online: May 25, 2016
Discussion open until: Oct 25, 2016
Published in print: Nov 1, 2016
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