Fatigue assessment of steel riveted railway bridges: Full-scale tests and analytical approach: Fid-Bau Portal

Fatigue assessment of steel riveted railway bridges: Full-scale tests and analytical approach

Bertolesi, Elisa / Buitrago, Manuel / Adam, Jose M. / Calderón, Pedro A.

Abstract This paper describes a double experimental and analytical study of the fatigue behaviour of the Quisi and Ferrandet Bridges, twin 170 m long steel railway bridges constructed between 1913 and 1915 with typical Pratt truss structures and riveted connections. These bridges are part of the Spanish national railway network connecting the towns of Alicante and Denia, one of the key networks in the Valencia Region (Spain). The experimental laboratory investigation involved fatigue testing in one of the ICITECH laboratories at the Universitat Politècnica de València of: (i) a full-scale bridge span and (ii) an upper cross beam from the Ferrandet Bridge. During the tests, Linear Variable Displacement Transducers (LVDTs) and Strain Gauge (SG) sensors were used to capture the possible nucleation and propagation of fatigue cracks. Fatigue test carried out on the cross beam identified: (i) fatigue life of the critical detail, (ii) fatigue hot-spots along the cross beam and (iii) strain redistribution along the riveted element during crack growth. The experimental results from the full-scale bridge were adopted to calibrate an elastic numerical model of the whole structure, which was in turn used to estimate the Quisi Bridge's remaining fatigue life. The definition of the class of detail and remaining fatigue life were calculated by the S–N curves method, according to Eurocode 3, considering the available information on the bridges' loading histories.

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Highlights • An integrated multi-field analytical method for prediction of the residual fatigue life of steel bridges is proposed. • Double fatigue lab investigation on: (i) upper cross beam; (ii) isostatic span. • SN curves method provided detail classes of 63 or 71 for the girder element.. • Strain gauges were able to track the redistribution of stresses as cracks grew. • The fatigue test of the isostatic span lasted 45 k cycles confirming that the bridge could operate safely for 27 years more.