Analytical Study on Significance of Corroded Surface Measurement on Residual Strength Prediction

Abstract

The maintenance and safety of the existing bridges is an important concern of all highway and railroads. To assure adequate safety and determine the ongoing maintenance needs, thorough regular inspections are required. These inspections should form the essential source of information for carrying out a comprehensive evaluation of its current capacity. But the number of steel bridge infrastructures in the world is steadily increasing as a result of building new steel structures and extending the life of older structures. Most of these structures are subjected to corrosion due to environmental exposure which can reduce their carrying capacities. So, there is a need of more brisk and accurate assessment method which can be used to make reliable decisions affecting the cost and safety. In modern practices, numerical simulation is being used to replace the time-consuming and expensive experimental work and to comprehend on the lack of knowledge of mechanical behavior, stress distribution, ultimate behavior and so on. Therefore, using of numerical analysis method will give important knowledge not only for the strength estimation but also for subsequent repair and retrofitting plan. This paper presents the results of non-linear FEM analyses and compares them with their respective tensile tests of corroded plates which are obtained from a steel plate girder used for about 100 years with severe corrosion condition. Further, the effect of number of measuring points on the remaining strength estimation is studied to establish an analytical methodology to predict the residual strength capacities of a corroded steel member by measuring lesser number of points with an acceptable accuracy level.