09.04: Fatigue behaviour of the closed rib to deck and crossbeam joint in a newly designed orthotropic bridge deck

Abstract

ABSTRACTOrthotropic decks are widely used in large span and movable steel bridges and the design is dominated by fatigue resistance. Closed rib to deck welded joints in the orthotropic decks are sensitive to fatigue loads and a number of fatigue cracks are reported in bridge inspections. For the design of new bridge decks, thicker deck plates are proposed for reducing stresses in fatigue sensitive locations like the conjunction of the deck plate, rib and crossbeam. Compared to the joints in span, the variation of stress at the crossbeam is larger due to the high stress concentration near the weld root. In this study, fatigue tests are carried out on a full‐scale orthotropic deck segment to study the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in the deck plate. Trapezoidal stiffeners are welded to a 20 mm thick deck plate and different welding methods are used in manufacturing the specimen. Various load levels are applied on the deck plate by hydraulic jacks. The strain gauges are attached both at the top and bottom of the deck plate in the vicinity of the expected crack paths. The strain history and distribution of strain ranges at the characteristic sections are analysed. An ultrasonic method, time‐of‐flight diffraction, is used to inspect the sizes of the cracks after testing. Comparison of the number of cycles that corresponds to a crack propagation is given in the hot spot S‐N curve figure. With a failure criterion of 10% strain range deviation, the fatigue strength scatter of the 20 mm thick deck plate is similar to that of the 12 mm deck.