Bridge Structures, Vol. 2, No.

2, June 2006, 79 95

A monumental bridge with a problem caused by oversights in design

A. B. MEHRABI*
Bridge Engineering Solutions, Inc., Lewiston, NY 14092, USA (Revised version received 26 May 2006)

In January 2004, one of the lower hanger plates of the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, fractured. Emergency repairs were performed on some of the plates and a bridge evaluation project was initiated to understand the cause of the problem and to devise appropriate solutions. This paper summarizes the evaluation process and the results. The scope included short- and long-term hanger force and plate strain measurements, nite element analysis, non-destructive testing (NDT), probabilistic analysis, and remaining service-life estimation. The investigation showed unusual behaviour of the bridge superstructure that is attributed to the inclined conguration of the hanger cables introducing additional stiness and attracting additional forces from a variety of sources. The evaluation has shown that many of the hanger plates are at the critical stage of their service life. This paper describes an example of oversights in design that has left a monumental bridge in a critical condition 30 years after its construction.

Keywords: Suspension bridges; Cables; Fatigue; Fracture; Service life analysis; Instrumentation; Finite element; Non-destructive testing; Force measurement; Dynamic response; Bridge evaluation; Temperature eects

1. Introduction In January 2004, one of the lower hanger plates of the First Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, fractured. Emergency repairs were performed on some of the plates. The Turkish Highway General Directorate (KGM) was concerned about the fatigue performance and potential for cracking of the remaining hanger plates. A bridge evaluation project was initiated to understand the cause of the problem and to devise appropriate solutions. The main concern was the fatigue performance and potential for cracking of the hanger (suspender) plates connecting the hanger cables to the deck and main suspension cable. For the fatigue analysis, existing stress level and stress variation in time needed to be evaluated. To obtain the stress level in the plates, existing forces in the hanger cables, which connect to the suspect plates, were measured. Finite element analysis was performed to

calculate the existing baseline stress contour on each plate, and the critical stress location was identied. Inspection and non-destructive testing (NDT) of the plate details including the welds were also conducted to identify critical locations and existing aws in the plates. Sensors were installed on cables and plates for longer-term monitoring and to obtain the range of stress variation and the repeating frequency in time. With these parameters and considering the trac trends, temperature eects, and probabilistic extrapolation, the service life of the plates was estimated. The scope of work for this project included: (1) (2) (3) (4) hanger cables force measurement; instrumentation of plates and cables for continuous monitoring; probabilistic analysis of continuous monitoring data; nite element analysis of plates;

*Email: amehrabi@besbridge.com
Bridge Structures ISSN 1573-2487 print/ISSN 1744-8999 online 2006 Taylor & Francis http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/15732480600852088

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(5) (6)

inspection and NDT evaluation of hanger plates; and remaining service-life analysis.

2. Description of the bridge The First Bosporus Bridge carries six lanes of trac over the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey. This bridge is the older of two suspension bridges connecting the two continents of Asia and Europe over the Bosporus Strait. Figure 1 shows a view of this bridge from the Asian side. The bridge construction was completed in 1974. It has a main suspended span of 1074 m, and side spans of 231 m on the European side and 255 m on the Asian side, spanning approximately in a southeast northwest direction. Two closed H-shaped steel towers support the main suspension cables. The deck structure is made of single steel box girder with a total width of 28 m (from hanger to hanger). Two 2.5-m wide walkways, one on each side of the deck, are used only for maintenance and access to the bridge. There are 236 inclined hanger cables in the main suspension span. These are divided symmetrically into four groups, each group in one half of the main span on each side of the deck. Inclined hanger cables are connected at the top end to the main suspension cable via upper hanger plates and to the deck via lower hanger plates. The rst connection point on the main suspension cable is located 18.05 m from the centreline of the tower and the remaining connection points on the main cable are spaced at 17.9 m (horizontal) toward the centre of the main span. The rst lower hanger plate is located 8.95 m from the centreline

of the tower with only one cable connected to it. The remaining lower hanger plates are spaced at 17.9 m (along the deck curve) for 292.4 m from the rst hanger plate, after which the hanger plates are positioned toward the centre of the main span to accommodate a 658 angle for the hangers with respect to a horizontal line. There are a total of 41 lower hanger plates in each quarter of the bridge deck, 82 plates in each side of the deck and 164 in the whole bridge. In each quarter of the bridge, lower hanger plates No. 2 through No. 19 from each tower each connect two hanger cables to the deck while the remaining lower hanger plates each connect one hanger cable to the deck. Fifty-nine upper hanger plates on each side of the bridge (a total of 118 upper hanger plates in the main span of the bridge) each connect two hanger cables to the main suspension cable. Figure 2 shows a typical two-cable lower hanger plate and gure 3 shows a typical one-cable lower hanger plate. Figure 4 shows a typical upper hanger plate. Hanger cable designation in one quarter of the bridge is shown in gure 5. According to information provided by Brunton Shaw, Ltd, from manufacturing specications issued by the Brunton, Ltd, the original manufacturer of the cables, the hanger cables consist of 58-mm nominal diameter galvanized steel wire single spiral strand connected to upper and lower hanger plates via socket and pin connection. Per this specication, the mass of the hanger cable is 16.62 kg/m, cross-sectional area is 1960 mm2, and the nominal breaking load is 288 tonnes. This information was used in conjunction with the eld-recorded data for force estimation of the hanger cables.

Figure 1. A view of the Bosporus Bridge.

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Figure 2. A typical two-cable hanger plate.

Figure 3. A typical one-cable hanger plate.

3. Hanger cable force measurement Forces in all hanger cables were estimated using a laserbased vibration technique. In this technique, a laser vibrometer (shown in gure 6) targeted at each cable records the vibration time-history, based on which, the

fundamental frequencies are calculated. The forces are estimated using these frequencies, cables geometric and mechanical properties, and a formulation developed specially for structural cables. Ambient excitation was used for longer cables, where the shorter cables were impacted with a rubber mallet. Details of this technique can be found in

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Figure 4. A typical upper hanger plate.

Figure 5.

Hanger cables in one quarter of the main span. even-numbered designation. It is likely that a portion of the load has been transferred from odd-numbered hangers to the even-numbered hangers. This occurrence may be attributed to the thermal eects on the main suspension span. The balanced condition would be that resulting in almost equal forces in adjacent cables ascending from one panel point on the deck. This condition has resulted in stresses above those expected for many cables. This set of measured forces was considered as the basis around which the force variation in select cables due to live loads and temperature eects are to be measured, as described next. 4. Instrumentation of select cables and plates The objective of the instrumentation and monitoring was to record force variation in the hanger cables for a duration long enough to allow a probabilistic extrapolation of the results. These forces could then be used to identify the critical locations on the hanger plates and to obtain the stress variation at those locations through analysis.

Mehrabi and Tabatabai (1999) and Yen et al. (1997). Figures 7 and 8 show forces in east and west hanger cables of the main span, respectively. The estimated hanger forces range from a minimum of 0.0 (loose hanger) to a maximum of 1377 kN. It should be noted that the inclination angle of hanger cables with respect to the horizontal plane increases toward to the tower. Assuming that the dead load acting on panel points remains the same, it should be expected that forces in cables closer to the mid-span (smaller inclination angles) are higher than those closer to the towers. The trend shown in the results supports this expectation if forces in each adjacent hanger pairs are added. The force patterns in four quadrants of the bridge were in good agreement with each other symmetrically. The sum of forces in the south side hangers is about 2% higher than that in the north side. It is important to point out that, with very few exceptions, forces in hangers with odd-numbered designation are consistently and signicantly lower than forces in

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Figure 6. Laser vibrometer targeting hanger cables.

Figure 7.

Hanger force distribution for east cables.

In the meantime, the strains on select locations on the plates were to be measured for comparison and verication. For this purpose, representative locations along the south-east quarter of the main span of the bridge were selected and instrumented for monitoring of strain in cables and plates from trac-induced live loads and gradual

temperature variation. Figure 9 shows the instrumentation locations. A weather station recorded environmental conditions concurrently. The representative hanger plates were two two-cable plates with the minimum and maximum cable inclinations, one two-cable plate that had been repaired temporarily

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Figure 8.

Hanger force distribution for west cables.

Figure 9. Locations of instrumented plates.

after the incident, one one-cable symmetric plate, and two one-cable non-symmetric plates. The instrumentation system included wireless data acquisition systems at six anchor plates. Each instrumented location consisted of strain gages on the hanger plates, and force transducers on the hanger cables. Figures 10 and 11 show typical detailed layout of instrumented location

corresponding to the plate and cable conguration shown in gures 2 and 3, respectively. Two types of data were collected: static and dynamic. The static data were collected to capture the trend of force variation in cables due to daily temperature variation and contained data with 32 Hz rate per channel for 30 min every 2 h, for a total duration of 2 days. Figure 12 shows

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Figure 10.

Instrumentation details of a typical two-cable plate.

Figure 11.

Instrumentation details of a typical one-cable plate.

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Figure 12.

Temperature and force variation.

a typical force variation trend due to temperature variation for one of the hanger cables for 24-h duration resulting from static data collection. The trends show clearly that forces in cables are sensitive to temperature variation. The directionality of cable force changes with temperature variation depended on the location and inclination direction of the hanger cables. The dynamic data were collected for probabilistic data analysis intended for capturing the eects of fatigue cycles. The dynamic data were collected with 128 Hz rate per channel for 5 min every 2 h, for a total duration of 4 days. Environmental data were collected during the testing period. Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity, and rainfall were recorded. Figures 13 and 14 represent the temperature, humidity and wind speed recorded during this phase of testing. 5. Probabilistic analysis of instrumentation data Dynamic and static data were analysed separately. The rain-ow method (Parker 1981) was used for counting half cycles in the recorded dynamic data for stresses in hanger cables. The numbers of half cycles collected for 5-min periods were multiplied by 24 to estimate the number of half cycles in each 2-h interval. The estimated numbers of half cycles in each 2-h interval were summed up to nd the number of half cycles during the 3-day data recording period. The results were tabulated and histogram charts were plotted. Figure 15 shows a 3-day typical half-cycle histogram for stresses in one of the instrumented cables.

The horizontal axis shows the stress ranges with an increment of 3.45 MPa, starting from 3.45 MPa and ending at 127.5 MPa. From the static data, the strain variation in hanger cables for a temperature variation of 11.28C was calculated and is presented in table 1. The strain variation from recorded data was converted to stress variation for each cable using the following relationship: sT 159 000 T 17 ms=1 000 000=11:2 1

where sT is stress at temperature T in MPa, ms is the strain (microstrain) variation in that cable due to a temperature variation equal to 11.28C. The elastic modulus of the cable was assumed to be 159 000 MPa. The baseline cable force measurement was conducted in an average temperature of about 178C. The static data were analysed to estimate the force variation in each instrumented cable with respect to ambient temperature change (see gure 12). For a temperature variation range of 11.28C, for days when the data were collected, stress variations of as low as 10.3 MPa and as high as 89.6 MPa were estimated in dierent hanger cables. Weather data were obtained from KGM for the year 2003. These data were analysed to determine the daily range of temperature variation shown in gure 16. With the data from instrumentation and annual temperature variations, annual stress variations were calculated. Hence, using rain-ow analysis, annual half-cycle stress histograms in

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Figure 13.

Temperature and humidity.

Figure 14.

Wind speed.

instrumented cables were constructed. Figure 17 shows one such histogram corresponding to the cable for which the live load eect histogram in gure 15 was presented. As

shown in gures 15 and 17, temperature variation induces higher stresses with lower frequencies when compared with the eects of live load (dynamic).

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Figure 15.

Typical stress histogram (dynamic). Figures 21 and 22 show principal stress contours resulting from application of unit cable force on two-cable and onecable plates, respectively. The stress contours shown in these gures clearly show the stress concentration that coincide with the termination of weld lines connecting vertical and horizontal stiener plates (see gures 19 and 20) to the hanger plate. This introduces a critical detail concerning fatigue in many of the hanger plates. For verication, the stresses in plates obtained from nite element analysis were compared with those measured directly (after conversion from strain measurements) on the plates and a good agreement was observed. 7. NDT of plates A comprehensive NDT program was carried out for the hanger plates to detect the existing cracks and aws. For this purpose, all deck-level hanger plates, the welds around the hanger plates, and the sockets were sandblasted to allow a thorough visual inspection to be performed followed by a dye-penetrant test. Additionally, ultrasonic testing was conducted in areas found to contain anomalies and cracks. It was determined that the welds on the majority of plates and socket rings had fair to bad workmanship with many defects, undercuts and/or amecutting defects. Cracks were also detected on several plates, many consistent with the results of the stress analysis described above. Figure 23 shows one of the plates with this type of crack.

Table 1. Strain variation in cables for temperature variation of 11.28C.

Plate no.: Cable no.: Strain (ms) 2 250 84 3 64 22 310 94 23 135 105 41 583 106 42 677 121 57 383

6. Finite element analysis of hanger plates Finite element modeling tool was used to identify the critical locations of stress concentration on the hanger plates and to calculate maximum stresses resulting from cable forces. Three-dimensional nite element analyses were conducted using the DIANA program (TNO Building and Construction Research 2004) on three models covering all congurations of instrumented plate cable combinations. The nite element model of a hanger connection included a portion of the deck and the walkway and spanned from one transverse diaphragm to another. Figure 18 shows front and rear view of an example of a typical complete nite element model used for stress analyses. The deck stieners and the connection stieners were also included in the models. Cable force was applied at the centre of the hanger socket pin. Eight-node and sixnode at shell elements were used throughout the mesh. Figures 19 and 20 show partial nite element models of two-cable and one-cable hanger plates, respectively.

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Figure 16.

Daily temperature variations in 2003.

Figure 17.

Typical stress histogram (static).

8. Remaining service-life analysis The remaining service-life analysis for fatigue was carried out based on the eld-measured stresses and nite element analysis results. Photographs of the fractured hanger plates and NDT results were also utilized to gain insight into the

failure modes. The fatigue evaluation was performed in accordance with the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specications (AASHTO 1998). In order to perform a fatigue evaluation, three types of information are required. First, the applied stress range or the applied eective stress range of a variable amplitude

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Figure 18.

Front and rear view of a complete nite element model of a two-cable hanger plate. variations in stress in individual hangers but with a very low corresponding number of cycles. As was discussed earlier and shown in gure 24, there is a vertical weld that connects the hanger plates to stiener plates. At the termination of this weld near the horizontal plate, a signicant stress concentration exists due to the abrupt change in the section at this location. The detail is analogous to a transverse ange attachment termination in a beam or the termination of a longitudinal stiener on a web, both of which are well known to have very poor fatigue resistance. Hence, for the hanger plates, the connection has been classied as a Category E detail (per AASHTO LRFD) for this investigation. With the above information, the service life of representative hanger plates was calculated to range from about 20 years for two-cable plates to innity for symmetric

spectrum must be determined through eld measurements, analysis, or a combination of two. Second, the number of cycles produced at the eective stress range is also required. Finally, the fatigue resistance of the detail must be known, i.e. the detail must be classied. The applied stress range and corresponding number of cycles were obtained through the eld measurements and extrapolations. Based on previous experience with measurements made on other long-span bridges supported by hangers, the response of these members is more inuenced by global behaviour or the eect of multiple vehicles (e.g. several trucks side-byside), trac jams, and other live load eects (wind, general vibration, etc.) rather than individual trucks. It should be noted that due to fatigue concerns, truck trac has not been allowed on the bridge for more than 20 years. Temperature changes can also produce substantial

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Figure 19.

A partial nite element model of a two-cable hanger plate.

Figure 20.

A partial nite element model of a one-cable hanger plate. that have been made should be viewed as lower bound estimates. In any case, the results show that the hanger plates with two cables attached are very susceptible to fatigue cracking. According to the ndings of the investigation, the fracture of the hanger plate in the Bosporus Bridge can be explained as follows. The failure of the hanger plate is

one-cable plates. The estimated fatigue lives are reasonably in agreement with the case of the fractured hanger plate and cracked plates, taking into account typical scatter in fatigue-life predictions. It is common to observe an order of magnitude dierence in fatigue life in full-scale fatigue tests, and anticipated scatter in results is built into the resistance curves used for this evaluation. Hence, the life predictions

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Figure 21.

Stress contour for a two-cable plate.

Figure 22. Stress contour for a one-cable plate.

believed to be the result of fatigue cracking which initiated at the termination of the vertical weld attaching the vertical hanger plate to the stiener plates. The location where the crack is believed to have initiated is illustrated in gure 25 using a photograph of a similar undamaged plate.

As with fatigue cracking in many other bridges, the crack is speculated to have initiated and propagated in fatigue for some time and remained undetected. The crack grew in fatigue until eventually it reached a length where the applied loads resulted in brittle fracture of the plate. Plate

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Figure 23.

Crack detected by NDT (marked C).

Figure 24.

Critical detail schematic.

material of this thickness usually has substantial toughness and can tolerate very large cracks prior to fracture. The size of the crack that can be tolerated is a function of the applied static and dynamic loads and material toughness. Considering the typical factors of safety in most components, the plate likely had considerable reserve strength that

permitted the crack to grow to a large length prior to fracture. Because the fracture occurred during cold temperatures, the decrease in material toughness may have also been a contributing factor in the failure. However, fracture at higher temperature would also have been possible if the crack had grown to a sucient length.

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Figure 25. How the failure occurred.

9. Conclusions The investigation described in this paper has been successful in identifying possible damage sources and vulnerable locations on the bridge, some requiring immediate attention. Specically, the investigation has shown unusual behaviour of the bridge superstructure that is mostly attributed to the unique conguration of the hanger cables. Inclined hanger cables introduce lateral and, in some aspects, vertical stiness in addition to that provided by the main suspension cable and the bridge deck. Consequently, the hanger cables attract forces from a variety of sources, among which dynamic and static eects of live loading and temperature variation are recognized to be of most signicance. Hanger cable force variation of about 50 tonnes was recorded during a relatively short monitoring period for live load eects. A daily force variation of about 21 tonnes was recorded in some cables due to daily temperature variation. These, if extrapolated linearly, can generate force variations as large as 70 tonnes in hanger cables. This phenomenon alone can explain looseness of some hanger cables observed during this investigation. Therefore, large-amplitude force variation in hanger cables due to live and ambient loadings has created serious potential for fatigue cracking in hanger plates, hanger cables, and other bridge elements. This, in turn, was exacerbated by introduction of fatigue-sensitive details in the design of these elements. As an example, termination of the weld lines attaching the hanger plate to the vertical and

horizontal stiener plates present a high potential for initiation of the fatigue cracking. The inclined conguration of the hanger cables and fatigue-sensitive details of the hanger plates, both features left by oversights in design without recognizing the consequences, seem to be responsible for the fatigue problems in this bridge. In general, the service-life analysis has shown that many of the hanger plates are at the critical stage of their service life. Two-cable hanger plates have been shown to be more susceptible to fatigue cracking. NDT evaluation has already detected cracks with potential for extension on some of the hanger plates consistent with the ndings of the analysis. Fatigue and service-life analysis were able to explain the potential cause of the hanger plate fracture incident in the bridge. Furthermore, it was shown that for many plates, the stress at critical locations from a combination of baseline forces and other eects could be critically close to the yield strength of the plate materials. This is inuenced largely by dierences between baseline forces of odd- and even-numbered hanger cables that are mostly attributed to sources such as temperature eects, superstructure erection process, additional dead load, and variation of the bridge geometry from the design conguration. 10. Recommendations for future investigations

To reach more conclusive and comprehensive ndings necessary for design and application of repair and retrot

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schemes, further investigations are recommended. These include: . Inspection and fatigue analysis of hanger cables, upper hanger plates, and deck structure. It is likely that these elements are inuenced by the signicant force variations reported in the present investigation in a manner similar to the lower hanger plates, therefore, requiring immediate attention. A NDT inspection and fatigue analysis is recommended for these elements. Hanger cables force measurement at a dierent ambient temperature. The cable base force measurement in the present study was performed at relatively warm ambient temperature. Another set of force measurement is recommended at a cold temperature to verify the eects of temperature variation conclusively. Instrumentation and force variation measurement in cables in relation with solar radiation and temperature variation for a longer period of time will also help to quantify these eects. Detailed inspection of the bridge structure. A comprehensive detailed, hands-on inspection is recommended for the bridge. This should cover the super- and substructure including main suspension cables, deck and tower structure, approaches, bearings and joints, and piers. A survey and geometry measurement is also recommended. Vibration study on hanger cables. Some of the hanger cables experience excessive vibration. The vibration characteristics of the cables and means for suppression of excessive oscillation need to be studied. Finite element modeling of the bridge superstructure. It is recommended that a nite element model of the bridge be constructed for analysis of the eectiveness of various repair schemes, dynamic eects of live loading, seismic analysis, etc.

It is recommended that after completion of the inspection program and application of the repair schemes, the bridge is installed with a continuous health-monitoring system.

Acknowledgements This project was funded by the Turkish General Directorate of Highways (KGM) and was a product of a team eort. Signicant contributions by Mr Ertugrul Kasaci of ERSE Industrial Installations and Dr Robert Connor are appreciated. Special thanks to Mr Yakup Dost, Mr Ahmet Akdeniz and Mr Erdogan Dedeoglu of KGM for coordinating the process, and overseeing and guiding its implementation, and to Mr Ozay Turnaoglu of Mak-Yol for facilitating the contract and project implementation. Sincere gratitude is expressed to Professor Dr Aydin Dumanoglu for reviewing the process and providing valuable comments and discussions. The opinions and conclusions in this paper are of the author and do not reect necessarily those of the others.

References
AASHTO, Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Bridge Design Specications, 2nd edn, 1998 with 1999 and 2000 Interims (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Ocials, Washington, DC). Mehrabi, A.B. and Tabatabai, H., A unied nite dierence formulation for free vibration of cables. J. Struct. Engng ASCE, 1999, 124, 1313 1322. Parker, A.P., The Mechanics of Fracture and Fatigue, 1981 (E. & F. N. Spon Ltd, London). TNO Building and Construction Research, DIANA Finite Element Analysis Program, 2004 (TNO Building and Construction Research, Delft, The Netherlands). Yen, W.P., Mehrabi, A.B. and Tabatabai, H., Evaluation of stay cable tension using a non-destructive vibration technique, in ASCE Structures Congress Proceedings, vol. 1, 1997, pp. 503 507.