Abstract
Cracks may generate in buckle plates of steel railway bridges. The conventional measures against the crack have problems in terms of its workability and economy, and it is desirable to establish new measures. In this study, in consideration of establishing new measures, based on stress measurement and damage investigations on actual bridges and FEM analysis simulating them, the characteristics and cause of cracks in buckle plates of steel railway bridges was clarified. As a result, it was found that the cause of the crack generation was corrosion of the upper surface of buckle plates due to the loss of function of the waterproof layer, and corrosion-fatigue due to local out-of-plane bending stress near the attachment. In addition, based on the past studies, the evaluation on the tendency of generation of cracks by site in the buckle plate was attempted. As a result, it was found that in deck girders, if the waterproof layer did not function, there was a possibility that cracks would generate from the attachment, where was on the back side of the web of the lateral struts, whereas in other parts the possibility of cracking was low.
