Abstract
The effect of stress reversals, generated by vehicles passing the bridge deck in sequence from different transverse locations, has been underestimated or even ignored in the fatigue life evaluation of orthotropic steel decks (OSDs), which may result in an overestimated fatigue life of the whole bridge. In this paper, four distribution patterns of vehicle transverse locations were considered and the effect of stress reversals on the fatigue evaluation of a conventional OSD (COSD) and a lightweight composite deck (LWCD) was investigated from infinite-life and finite-life perspectives based on finite element analysis. The results show that the maximum stress range could be underestimated by over 40% if the most unfavorable stress reversal is underestimated. A convenient and efficient vehicle loading scheme was proposed to determine the accurate maximum stress range for the infinite fatigue life evaluation of OSDs. Besides, the stress reversals are found to have a significant effect on the finite fatigue life evaluation of both the COSD and the LWCD, and the fatigue life of COSDs could be overestimated by 95% if the stress reversals are ignored. Nevertheless, the effect of stress reversals on the finite fatigue life evaluation of the LWCD is much less than that of the COSD, which indicates a better anti-fatigue performance of the LWCD over the COSD. In addition, the stress reversals induced by overloaded trucks have a significant effect on the fatigue performance of OSDs. The results from the study can provide some references for the fatigue design and evaluation of OSD systems.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
