Fatigue Life Assessment of Welded Cover Plate by Using Global and Local Approaches

Abstract

This paper presents the fatigue life assessment of a welded detail in an existing steel railway bridge. The fatigue life is assessed based on strain measurements due to the passage of characteristic trains. Characteristic trains are an integral part of the load model formed by "Croatian railways" data. Strain gauges that measure deformations are set at specific locations in order to gain information on Nominal and Hot Spot stresses. Based on this measurement data, stress ranges and stress spectrum are determined and compared to a corresponding detail category. Obtained results in this paper are related to comparing fatigue life of the analysed detail based on local and global approaches according to Eurocode 3 and IIW recommendations.