Steel bridge of The Hanshin Expressway, Japan.
Fatigue cracks were detected on welded joints between vertical stiffeners and orthotropic deck plate in 2005 after 9 years of service.
The outline of the bridge structure is as follows.
- Bridge length : 165.0m
- Span length : 49.3+75.0m+44.6m
- Structure : Box girder bridge with orthotropic deck system
- Structural steel : SM490Y
Fluctuating loads due to highway live load.
Fatigue cracks were detected on welded joints between vertical stiffners and orthotropic deck plate.Type-A cracks initiated from the orthotopic deck side toe of the weld bead and propagated at a orthotropic deck. Type-B cracks initiated from the vertical stiffeners side toe of the weld bead and propagated at orthotopic deck after penetrating through the weld bead(Fig.1). .
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Type-A Type-B
Fig.1 Crack location
Cause of fatigue cracks was as follows:
- Localized stress concentration which resulted from the restraint of the deck plate deflection due to the wheel load.
Retrofitting measures were cutting treating of semicircle at the vertical stiffeners(Fig.2).
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Fig.2 Cutting treating of semicircle
Yoshihiko TAKADA,Yoriko KAWAKAMI,Yuji SAKAI,Masahiro SAKANO, Study on retrofit measures in weld of vertical stiffener cutting treating of the semicircle in orthotropic steel deck, STEEL CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING, Vol.16, No.62,2009.(In Japanese)