Abstract
One of the most important factors that influence the service life of a steel bridge is corrosion. The girder end is often found corroded. For efficient maintenance, therefore, it is quite essential to know the residual strength at the girder end. The present study investigates the influence of the corrosion at the girder end. To be specific, the degradation of the load-carrying capacity of a steel girder due to the corrosion at its end is evaluated numerically. The vertical load is placed at the upper flange right above the support. Steel I-section girders with various corrosion models are constructed and analyzed. It is found that different corrosion models at the girder end lead to significantly different degradation of the load-carrying capacity.
