No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

<p>Many bridges have been in service for over 40 years and face to the repapering or reinforcing period due to deterioration. Particularly, in a high-strength bolts used for joints may be loosened due to co-rotation, corrosion, or vibration caused by the vehicles. Thus, it is important to evaluate an axial force of the high-strength bolts. In this research, an axial force evaluation of high-strength bolt using eddy current that does not require measurement preparation has been investigated. The eddy current method is capable of capturing the change in permeability of steel members due to the stress change. Further, the stress distribution of the bolt head is assumed uniform without directionality. Therefore, a numerical simulation and an experiment that measures the output signal of the eddy current probe while introducing axial force to the high-strength bolt has conducted.</p>

<p>High-strength bolted joints are widely used in steel bridges. However, bolt axial force may decrease during the service life of a bridge for many reasons including relaxation, traffic load, and earthquake. Consequently, the remaining bolt axial force is considered a factor with uncertainty that is important to evaluate. In a previous study, the authors proposed an axial force evaluation method using eddy current. In this study, to apply the proposed axial force evaluation method to the actual measurements, new evaluation indices with the possibility of reducing measurement errors and simplifying measurement have been considered. The applicability of the improved method for high- strength bolts using weathering steel has also been examined. An experiment using both high- strength bolts and weathering steel high-strength bolts was conducted to investigate the possibility of evaluating the stress change due to the axial force with the new indices.</p>