1st Edition

Fatigue Life of Riveted Steel Bridges

By Björn Åkesson Copyright 2010
    170 Pages
    by CRC Press

    184 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Many old riveted railway bridges are replaced too soon due to a general lack of knowledge about the expected life span. This indicates the need for more information on fatigue and brittle fracture of riveted bridges. This book unveils extensive research and literature results on riveted bridges' fatigue life and shows how to take fatigue properly into account when deciding about the future service life of a riveted railway bridge. It deals with the expected fatigue life, level of stress ranges by traffic, effect of temperature and aging, loading histories, crack detection, loose rivets, other defects, repair and strengthening, providing proper instructions and more. Intended for structural, bridge and steel construction engineers.

    1. Introduction                                                                                                                  1.1 Background
    1.2 Aim
    1.3 Scope and limitations
    1.4 Contents of this thesis


    2. Previous Work – A Literature Survey
    2.1 Static behaviour of riveted connections
    2.2 Fatigue tests of riveted joints
    2.3 Full-scale fatigue tests of riveted bridge members and joints
    2.3.1 “Experiments to determine the effect on impact, vibratory action, and long-continued changes of load on wrought-iron girders’’ (Fairbairn 1864)
    2.3.2 “Fatigue life extension of riveted connections’ (Reemsnyder 1975)
    2.3.3 “Comportement à la fatigue de profiles laminés avec semelles de renfort rivetées’’ (Rabemanantsoa and Hirt 1984)
    2.3.4 “Fatigue strength of weathered and deteriorated riveted members’’ (Out, Fisher and Yen 1984)
    2.3.5 “Fatigue of riveted connections’’ (Baker and Kulak 1985)
    2.3.6 “Fatigue and fracture evaluation for rating riveted bridges’’ (Fisher, Yen, Wang and Mann 1987)
    2.3.7 “Fatigue strength of corroded steel plates from old Railway bridge’’ (Abe 1989)
    2.3.8 “Fatigue and fracture of riveted bridge members’’ (Brühwiler, Smith and Hirt 1990)
    2.3.9 “Experimental and theoretical investigations of existing railway bridges’’ (Mang and Bucak 1990)
    2.3.10 A comparison and summary of the results from the full-scale fatigue tests


    3. Riveted Connections
    3.1 Historical review
    3.2 Riveting technique
    3.3 Load-carrying capacity
    3.3.1 Clamping force
    3.3.2 Mechanical properties
    3.3.3 Shear strength
    3.3.4 Tensile strength
    3.4 Fatigue life if riveted connections

    4. Fatigue of Riveted Railway Bridges
    4.1 General
    4.2 Fatigue critical details
    4.3 Dynamic amplification
    4.4 Brittle fracture
    4.5 Corrosion
    4.6 Inspection and maintenance
    4.7 Reinforcement methods

    5. Field Studies
    5.1 General
    5.2 Visual inspection
    5.3 Strain measurements
    5.4 Deflection
    5.5 Dynamic amplification
    5.6 Crack control
    5.7 Steel samples
    5.8 Material testing
    5.9 Load-carrying capacity
    5.9.1 General
    5.9.2 Design load
    5.9.3 Remaining fatigue life
    5.9.4 Fracture mechanics analysis


    6. Full-scale Fatigue Tests of Riveted Girders
    6.1 General
    6.2 Test specimens
    6.3 Test set-up and testing procedure
    6.4 Test results
    6.4.1 Fatigue loading
    6.4.2 Tension tests
    6.4.3 Impact testing
    6.4.4 Chemical analysis
    6.4.5 Clamping force
    6.4.6 Fatigue damage accumulation
    6.5 Comparison with other investigations
    6.6 Future investigations


    7. Summary and Conclusions

    8. Modern Research

    Biography

    Björn Åkesson is a former lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Currently he is a consulting engineer and the author of several books focusing on the design and analysis of steel structures, especially bridges. He also published Plate Buckling in Bridges and Other Structures , a comprehensive account of local buckling in bridges (Taylor & Francis, 2007).