Fatigue Damage Estimation in

Existing Railway Steel Bridges

PRESENTED BY
JIM J.R
(310011418010)
PROJECT GUIDE: S. ASHOK MANIKANDAN
INTRODUCTION
Since the end of the 18th century, first cast iron, then
wrought steel and finally steel has increasingly been used as
a construction material. Gradually, as industrial processes
progressed, various steel products became available, such as
rolled members and cold-formed elements.

At the beginning of the 19th century, engineering
design rules became more scientific as Navier, among
others, developed the basis of modern static calculations. In
this period, civil engineering saw a enormous development.
This did not happen without problems, several dramatic
collapses Occurred Steel structures were not exempted from
serious failures and engineers had regularly to suffer
setbacks.

INTRODUCTION
Fatigue represents one of the most diffused failure modes in
steel and composite steel concrete railway bridges, as it produces
about 80/90% of all failures.

Beside directly induced fatigue, phenomena like vibration
induced and distortion induced" fatigue are still partially
uncovered by actual design codes and represent a critical aspects
for the assessment of existing bridge and the design of new ones.

The European research project FADLESS "Fatigue damage
control and assessment for railways bridges" aims to define
innovative technical guidelines for the assessment and control of
existing and new bridges with regard to fatigue phenomena induced
by vibrations and distortions.
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

The assessment of an existing bridge can be
performed with different levels of accuracy and effort.
Generalized loads and resistance models might be adequate
for initial assessments, in general studies or for planning of
inspections and maintenance
[2]
.

Using conservative assumptions and a high level of
safety, it is easy to assert an insufficient capacity. The
opposite can be more difficult to prove. A bridge vital for a
local or a global transportation network cannot easily be
replaced. An interruption in traffic is costly and in certain
cases not accepted. This scenario puts high demands on the
assessment procedure.


INTRODUCTION

Due to economical and environmental issues, a
theoretical capacity assurance is to prefer before repair,
strengthening or replacement. The economical incentive
alone, of increasing the service life of a bridge might be
reason enough to invest in a thorough assessment.

Accumulated fatigue damage in steel bridges
presents a particularly insidious challenge to bridge designers
and engineers. Because the effects of fatigue are difficult
to quantify before identifiable cracks occur, bridge
engineers try to design bridges with infinite fatigue lives.


INTRODUCTION

Many details that were considered good practice three decades
ago, however, have proved detrimental to the fatigue performance
of steel bridges. Distortion-induced fatigue is one of the most
difficult fatigue-related problems to address. The phenomenon
occurs when adjacent girders at the same cross-section of a bridge
undergo different deflections. Because of the difference in the
deflections, the brace elements induce out-of-plane
deformations and stresses on the girders they connect.

The effect of these stresses on the bridges fatigue life is
difficult to quantify and was not a consideration in bridge design
practice three decades ago.

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Fatigue Damage Estimation in Existing
Railway Steel Bridges by Detailed Loading
History Analysis
[3]


In this paper a method to estimate fatigue damage in existing
steel railway bridges by detailed loading history analysis is
presented.


The procedure is based on the assumption that failure
probability is a function of the number of predicted future
trains and the probability of failure is related to the
probability of reaching the critical crack length.
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Railway traffic volumes in China have increased
dramatically with the fast development of the Chinese
economy in the past 20 years. The load frequency spectra of
bridges have also changed as a result. Therefore, it is necessary
to update the fatigue damage coefficient used in the railway
bridge design code accordingly.

This paper discusses the updating work that involved a
series of analyses and calculations based on the information
obtained from a nationwide investigation of various railway
lines. The newly updated fatigue damage coefficient has been
recommended for the Chinese railway bridge design code.

Updating Fatigue Damage Coefficient in
Railway Bridge Design Code in China
[4]


7/3/2014 10 J.R.JIM

In this paper, preliminary studies performed on the Italian
case study, the Panaro Bridge, are reported. In particular,
results of the standard fatigue assessment according to
Eurocode rules were compared with the actual fatigue
damages occurred to deck secondary components to obtain a
preliminary critical review of adopted fatigue assessment
methodologies.

Moreover, experimental tests were designed and
performed on the bridge in order to identify global vibration
modes and, finally, experimental mode shapes were compared
to numerical results of the preliminary FE bridge model. To this
aim, an automatic optimization procedure was implemented
by modeFRONTIER software.
Fatigue Assessment of Panaro Bridge
[5]


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This paper proposes a new model to estimate life of
structures for combined damage of high and low-cycle fatigue.
The model mainly consists of a new damage indicator and
strain-life fatigue curve.

Themodel predictions are verified by comparing with
fatigue test results of some materials. The proposed model is
applied to estimate the fatigue life of a bridge member for
combined damage of high cycle and low cycle fatigue caused
by usual traffic and earthquake loadings. Finally, the
importance and applicability of the proposed model is
confirmed.

A combined high and low cycle fatigue model
to estimate life of steel bridges
[6]


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Very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behaviors of bridge steel
(Q345) welded joints were investigated using an ultrasonic
fatigue test system at room temperature with a stress ratio R= 1.
The results show that the fatigue strength of welded joints
is dropped by an average of 60% comparing to the base metal
and the fatigue failure still occurred beyond 107 cycles. The
fatigue fracture of welded joints in the low cycle regime
generally occurred at the solder while at the heat-acted zone
(HAZ) in the very high cycle regime.
The fatigue fracture surface was analyzed with scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), showing welding defects such as
pore, micro-crack and inclusion were the main factors on
decreasing the fatigue properties of welded joints.
Very high cycle fatigue behavior of bridge
steel welded joint
[7]


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This paper proposes three different approaches to evaluate
remaining fatigue life of an existing riveted railway bridge.
First proposed approach is based on combination of
measured stress histories, Miners rule and partially known
Whler curve.
The second approach mainly consists of measured stress
histories, recently developed sequential law and fully known
Whler curve. The both mentioned approaches are specially
based on evaluation of primary stresses and code provided
fatigue curve.
Finally the obtained fatigue lives are compared. Thus, it has
been concluded that the second approach is more advisable for
general use and third approach has been recommended for detail
studies.

Different Approaches for Remaining Fatigue
Life Estimation of Critical Members in
Railway Bridges
[8]


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This paper presents a new low cycle fatigue model to
predict the life of steel bridges under extreme loading. It
consists of Coffin-Mansion strain life relationship and a new
damage indicator.

The proposed model is verified by comparing model
predictions with experimental fatigue results. The proposed
model is applied to predict the fatigue life of a bridge member
for earthquake loading. The effectiveness of the model is
confirmed by comparing the obtained results with the previous
Miners rule based predictions.

FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF BRIDGES
UNDER EXTREME LOADING
[9]


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This paper presents a new low cycle fatigue model to
predict life of steel bridges. It consists of Coffin-Manson strain-
life curve with a new strain based damage index.
The damage variable is based on a modified von Mises
equivalent strain to account for effects of loading non-
proportionality and strain path orientation in low cycle multi-
axial stress state.
The proposed model was verified by comparing with
experimental test results of two materials. Then, it was
applied an existing riveted wrought iron railway bridge to
estimate fatigue life due to usual traffic and earthquake
loadings. The obtained results verify the importance and
effectiveness of the proposed model over commonly used
Miners rule model in fatigue life estimation of steel bridges.

FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF BRIDGES
CONSIDERING THE EFFECT OF
MULTIAXIAL STRESSES
[10]


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This paper presents an analysis of low-cycle fatigue data
from four representative ancient Portuguese riveted metallic
bridges. This data can be used within the local approaches
framework to assess the number of cycles to crack initiation.
In particular, samples from the Luiz I, Eiffel, Fo and
Trezi bridges are analysed. Strain-life relations are derived
based on the classical deterministic Morrow proposition, as
well as using a probabilistic strain-life regression model.
Furthermore, the cyclic elastoplastic behaviour of the
materials are characterized, namely the cyclic
hardening/softening behaviours and the cyclic stress-strain
curves of the materials.
ANALYSIS OF LOW-CYCLE FATIGUE
DATA OF MATERIALS FROM SEVERAL
PORTUGUESE
RIVETED METALLIC BRIDGES
[11]


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In this licentiate thesis, the real load effect is studied by
monitoring a bridge during service. The aim is to improve the
fatigue life prediction by reducing the uncertainties in the
traffic load and finally attain a longer theoretical service life
of the bridge.
A deterministic fatigue assessment is presented based on
43 days of continuous measurements comprising more than 17
thousand train passages. Unfortunately, also this fatigue
assessment indicates high fatigue damages. A large monitoring
system with many gauges enables a statistical evaluation of the
quality of the measurements. By the principle of Analysis of
Variance, curve fitting and goodness-of-fit tests measured
spectra have been compared with known statistical
distributions. These distributions can be used for future fatigue
reliability assessments.

Improving a bridge fatigue life prediction by
monitoring
[12]


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This dissertation, which focuses on the fatigue life of
riveted steel railway bridges, is based on: - A series of full-scale
fatigue tests of nine riveted stringers taken from a railway
bridge built in 1896. A review of and comparison with the
different full-scale fatigue tests on riveted railway bridge
members, which have been conducted in other laboratories
over the years, is also given.

FATIGUE LIFE OF RIVETTED STEEL
RAILWAY BRIDGE
[13]

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This paper describes the application of such
method in assessing the remaining fatigue life of
bridge structures. Current specifications for fatigue
evaluation of existing bridges are reviewed and
compared. Case studies of three major highway
bridges are discussed.
Finally a procedure for evaluating the fatigue life
of existing bridges based on case-specific field strain
measurement is proposed for practicing engineers
and bridge owners.

Assessment of Bridge Remaining Fatigue Life
through Field Strain Measurement
[14]


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1. Assessment of Existing Steel Structures: Recommendations for
Estimation of Remaining Fatigue Life Improving a bridge
fatigue life prediction by monitoring .
2. John Leander Licentiate Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2010.
3. Fatigue Damage Estimation in Existing Railway Steel Bridges
by Detailed Loading History Analysis Alessio Pipinato, Carlo
Pellegrino, and Claudio ModenaDepartment of Structural and
Transportation Engineering, University of Padova.
4. Yuling Zhang; Xuezhong Xin; and Xin Cui

Researcher Fellow,
Bridge Section, China Academy of Railway Sciences, No. 2
Daliushu Rd., Xiwai, Beijing 100081, P.R. China


REFERENCES
7/3/2014 21 J.R.JIM

5. Fatigue Assesment of Panaro Bridge: Preliminary Results
Francesco V. Lippi, Michele Orlando (Consorzio Pisa
Ricerche), Walter Salvatore (University of Pisa), Giovanni
Sorrentino, Marco Tisalvi (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana).

6. A combined high and low cycle fatigue model to estimate life
of steel bridges Kamal Karunananda, Mitao Ohga, Ranjith
Dissanayake and Sudath Siriwardane, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Ehime University, Bunkyo-cho,
Matsuyama 790-8577, Japan.



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REFERENCES

7. Very high cycle fatigue behavior of bridge steel welded joint
Chao He, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science,
Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.

8. Different Approaches for Remaining Fatigue Life Estimation of
Critical Members in Railway Bridges Siriwardane Sudath
Chaminda, Mitao Ohga, Ranjith Dissanayake and Kazuhiro
Taniwaki, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Ehime University, Bunkyo-cho , Matsuyama 790-
8577, Japan.



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REFERENCES

9. FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF BRIDGES UNDER
EXTREME LOADING Kamal KARUNANANDA*, Mitao
OHGA, Ranjith DISSANAYAKE, Kazuhiro TANIWAKI

10. FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF BRIDGES CONSIDERING
THE EFFECT OF MULTIAXIAL STRESSES M. OHGA, K.
KARUNANANDA, P.B.R. DISSANAYAKE and A.M.N.D.
ADASOORIYA Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Ehime University, Japan.


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REFERENCES

11. ANALYSIS OF LOW-CYCLE FATIGUE DATA OF MATERIALS
FROM SEVERAL PORTUGUESE RIVETED METALLIC
BRIDGES, A.M.P. de Jesus, Quinta de Prados, 5001-801 Vila Real,
Portugal.
12. Improving a bridge fatigue life prediction by monitoring
Brinellvgen 23, Stockholm John Leander, November 2010.
13. Fatigue Life of Riveted Railway Bridges University dissertation
from Chalmers University of Technology Author : Bjrn kesson;
Chalmers tekniska hgskola.; Chalmers University of Technology.
14. Assessment of Bridge Remaining Fatigue Life through Field Strain
Measurement Structures Congress 2005 : Metropolis and Beyond
American Society of Civil Engineers New York, New York, United
States April 20-24, 2005 ISBN (print): 978-0-7844-0753-0 Publisher:
American Society of Civil Engineers


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REFERENCES

THANK YOU
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