Computer Modeling and Weight Limit Analysis for Bridge Structure Fatigue Using OpenSEES
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 8
Abstract
With the increasing demand in freight transportation, truck overloading has become a common issue worldwide. Overloaded trucks pose great challenges for transportation administration in that they can jeopardize the safety of bridges and even lead to bridge collapse. Traditionally, vehicle-induced damage on bridges was estimated based on the line-girder analysis, as suggested by bridge design codes. These analysis methods have been criticized to overly underestimate the bridge capacity. In this study, the fatigue damage (FD) of a typical composite girder bridge under truck overloading was investigated using the OpenSEES framework. The bridge system was regarded as a series-parallel system composed of concrete deck slab and a steel girder subsystem. A method for determining rational vehicle weight limits for highway bridges to achieve the desired service life was proposed considering the FD of bridges. The proposed method could also be used for estimating the FD of bridges caused by truck overloading. Numerical simulation results obtained from this study have shown that the cumulative FD of bridges under severe overloading conditions could increase rapidly, and it may threaten the safety of bridges, which underscores the importance of enforcing truck weight regulations on highway bridges.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 51778222), the China Scholarship Council (Grant 201706130087), and the Key Research Project of Hunan Province (Grant 2017SK2224).
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© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 7, 2018
Accepted: Mar 27, 2019
Published online: May 20, 2019
Published in print: Aug 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Oct 20, 2019
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