Fatigue Tests of Welded Joints in Steel Orthotropic Bridge Deck

The procedure supported by testing has been used for the fatigue assessment of the existing steel bridge with the orthotropic deck, built in the early 80’s of the XX century. The main goal was to check if the remaining fatigue life of the existing steel deck is at least 25 years, without the need of extensive repair or strengthening. The assessment comprised the fatigue calculation according to European codes with the use of updated values for material resistance. In order to obtain the updated information on material resistance the fatigue testing was carried out and the actual fatigue resistance ∆σC was applied in damage accumulation calculation. The fatigue tests were carried out for two most critical deck details. Test specimens were cut out of the existing deck at the locations where the preliminary analysis showed the possible highest stress ranges. The assessment based on the actual material resistance revealed that the bridge deck had got very long service life. The main results of the fatigue assessment of orthotropic steel deck supported by testing have been presented in the paper.