EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF THE REMAINED LIFTING PIECE WELDED TO ORTHOTROPIC STEEL DECKS

Abstract

Recently, fatigue cracks were observed at boxing weld of the remained lifting pieces on deck plate in orthotropic steel decks. The fatigue cracks may bring traffic troubles as they propagate into the deck plate. The authors have been clarified stress condition around the remained lifting pieces by FE analysis and evaluated their fatigue life. In this study, we conducted the fatigue test with the specimens of orthotropic steel decks and examined the fatigue strength of the remained lifting pieces in consideration of deck plate thickness as an parameter in order to verify validity of the analytical results.