Fatigue cracks have been reported at the upper ends of vertical stiffeners in the main girder-cross beam connections of steel H-beam bridges. In this paper, fatigue behavior and its mechanism were investigated through finite element analysis of the entire bridge, as a case study of fatigue damage in an H-beam bridge. The effects of structural conditions and loading positions on the local stress near the crack initiation point were analytically examined. Furthermore, the relations between the local stress and deformation parameters related to main girder and concrete deck were also discussed in order to clarify the influence of the behavior of the entire bridge system on the local stresses.
