Rating of steel bridges considering fatigue and corrosion

Abstract

In the present work, the capacity ratings of steel truss bridges have been carried out incorporating dynamic effect of moving vehicles and its accumulating effect as fatigue. Further, corrosion in the steel members has been taken into account to examine the rating factor. Dynamic effect has been considered in the rating procedure making use of impact factors obtained from simulation studies as well as from codal guidelines. A steel truss bridge has been considered to illustrate the approach. Two levels of capacity ratings- the upper load level capacity rating (called operating rating) and the lower load level capacity rating (called inventory rating) were found out using Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) method and a proposal has been made which incorporates fatigue in the rating formula. Random nature of corrosion on the steel member has been taken into account in the rating by considering reduced member strength. Partial safety factor for each truss member has been obtained from the fatigue reliability index considering random variables on the fatigue parameters, traffic growth rate and accumulated number of stress cycle using appropriate probability density function. The bridge has been modeled using Finite Element software. Regressions of rating factor versus vehicle gross weight have been obtained. Results show that rating factor decreases when the impact factor other than those in the codal provisions are considered. The consideration of fatigue and member corrosion gives a lower value of rating factor compared to those when both the effects are ignored. In addition to this, the study reveals that rating factor decreases when the vehicle gross weight is increased.