Steel bridge on Hanshin Expressway (at corner plate weld)

1.Field of application

Steel bridge on Hanshin Expressway ,Kobe, Japan.

2.Circumstances of Repair

In box girder, fatigue cracks were found in welds of the sole plate in Aug. 1982 after 12 years of service.

In I-section girder, fatigue cracks were found in the welds of the sole plate in Aug. 1984 after 14 years of service.

3.Types of structure

Simple I-section girder bridge is composite with the deck. The framing plan and cross section are shown in figure 1,2. Box girder bridge, which is located on the other location of the Hanshin Expressway line, is continuous of three spans. In both girders, sole plates were fillet weld connected to the girder bottom flanges at the support locations.


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Fig.1 Framing plan.


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Fig.2 Cross section.


4.Details of loading

Fluctuating loads due to highway live load.

5.Description of damage

Fatigue cracks initiated from the fillet weld toes of the sole plates under the girder webs. The cracks propagated along the fillet weld toes of the sole plates. After penetrating through the girder bottom flanges, some of the cracks propagated into the girder webs (Fig.3,4:I-section girder, Fig.5:Box girder). No the occurrence of the cracks depended on types of the supports, movable support or fixed bearing. The longest crack reached about 200mm length.


Causes of fatigue cracks were as follows:

6.Repair method applied

Because it was difficult to replace the sole plate, repair was performed by gouging, groove welding and plate welding.

Retrofit procedure is as follows.

1.16mm diameter stop hole were drilled at the crack tip.

2.After jacking up the girder, a scallop was constructed in the girder web.

3.After gouging the crack and groove welding (Fig.6), the new plates were weld connected on the girder flange and were bolt spliced at the scallop area which corresponded to the stop hole location of the girder web (Fig.7,8).

The original sole plate was replaced with a new one by bolting (Fig.9,10).



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Fig.6 Gouging the crack.


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Fig.7 Repair method for I section girder.


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Fig.8 Complete view.


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Fig.9 Repair method for Box section girder.


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Fig.10 Complete view.



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