Abstract
Abstract A possible scenario is proposed to put into evidence how the combined effect of fatigue at very high number of cycles and corrosion could have been responsible for the failure of one of th...
Highlights
The present European Standards concerning fatigue assessment in bridges prescribe to adopt the stress-life approach, and to refer to a bounded Wöhler’s curve with cut-off in correspondence of 108 cycles (Nussbaumer et al 2018)
When the aggressive environment is combined with poor maintenance and very high cycle fatigue (VHCF), the phenomena interact reducing the safety margin of the structure much more quickly than expected
The Polcevera viaduct (Genoa, Italy), a renowned cable-stayed concrete bridge designed by Morandi (1968) some five decades ago and partially collapsed on the August 14, 2018 (Fig. 1), is taken as case study to show that the effect of corrosion fatigue on existing historical bridges deserves more attention
Summary
The present European Standards concerning fatigue assessment in bridges prescribe to adopt the stress-life approach, and to refer to a bounded Wöhler’s curve with cut-off in correspondence of 108 cycles (Nussbaumer et al 2018). One relevant advantage of the Morandi structural conception was that the variable loads (phase 5) would have been carried by the whole homogenized concrete cross-section of the cable-stays, in place of the steel tendons alone, providing very limited oscillating stresses.
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