Fatigue analysis of riveted railway bridge connections using the theory of critical distances

Wind-Induced Fatigue Analysis of High-Rise Steel Structures Using Equivalent Structural Stress Method

“…As a result, many new methods and concepts based on local stress have been introduced into practical engineering structures. Righiniotis [7] used the theory of critical distances (TCD) to perform fatigue analysis of a riveted railway bridge by a global-local FE (Finite element) model. Sonsino [8] applied notch stress concept for several engineering structures including MAG-welded offshore K-nodes, sandwich panels for ship decks, spot-welded automotive doors and MAG-welded automotive trailing links.…”

An efficient methodology for fatigue damage assessment of bridge details using modal superposition of stress intensity factors

“…The relevance of this topic is reflected by the increasing number of numerical and experimental fatigue damage assessment studies performed on railway bridges [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. In this context, local models for fatigue analysis have been gaining popularity with respect to the classical nominal S-N approaches [13][14][15][16]. Fracture Mechanics and local/notch stress/strain-based fatigue approaches are becoming more frequent options to model fatigue crack initiation and propagation in bridge details.…”

Fatigue evaluation of riveted railway bridges through global and local analysis

“…the crack propagation threshold and the fatigue limit [11,30], both of which can be obtained through fatigue tests on plain material specimens. More details regarding the TCD can be found in [36], where its robustness in predicting the fatigue life of a stringer-to-cross-girder connection has been established.…”

“…Within the framework of the methodology presented in this paper, the TCD is employed in order to estimate the remaining fatigue life of the different components of the connection [36]. This theory requires the calculation of a 'critical distance' associated with a volume in the vicinity of the notch tip, within which stresses are to be averaged.…”

“…These stresses are then averaged within the critical volume, for each step of the analysis, and the stress history of the average stress is then converted into stress range blocks through rainflow counting [36]. Plain material S-N curves are used for fatigue damage calculations.…”