Abstract
Advances in the field of fracture mechanics over the last four decades have allowed for a greater understanding of brittle and ductile fracture, including how to account for plasticity in fracture specimens and how to statistically define data scatter in the brittle and ductile-brittle transition region. This is particularly important for structural steels used in bridge applications, which typically possess high ductility and toughness. The material toughness provisions of the fracture control plan for highway bridges in the United States were developed from a database of linear-elastic tests, many of which were considered to be invalid according to testing standards in place at the time. This, the first of two companion papers, presents a reevaluation of legacy fracture toughness data obtained from steels used in highway bridges. This reevaluation uses plasticity corrections that characterize the toughness behavior of these steels using the master curve approach. Results of the study indicate that the master curve approach can be used to accurately describe the temperature dependence and associated scatter of fracture behavior in the ductile-brittle transition region of historic bridge steels. This can be used to define cleavage fracture tolerance bounds for a given data set, which is a necessary step toward the development of a performance-based fracture design specification.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Bill Wright for his involvement on this project. They would also like to thank Kim Wallin from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Richard Link of the U.S. Naval Academy for their advice and assistance. Funding for this study was provided by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through TPF-5(238). The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not reflect the position of the FHWA.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 12 • December 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 5, 2015
Accepted: May 6, 2016
Published online: Aug 23, 2016
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jan 23, 2017
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Bridge engineering
- Bridge tests
- Bridges
- Bridges (by material)
- Bridges (by type)
- Brittleness
- Continuum mechanics
- Cracking
- Curvature
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering mechanics
- Field tests
- Fracture mechanics
- Geometry
- Highway bridges
- Material mechanics
- Material properties
- Materials characterization
- Materials engineering
- Mathematics
- Solid mechanics
- Steel bridges
- Structural engineering
- Tests (by type)
- Toughness
- Wood bridges
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