• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.8 no.3 s.28
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• pp.13-20
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• 1996

With the adoption of welded joints rather than bolted joints, we investigate the fatigue strength and the fatigue crack initiation of U-type trough rib and welded specimen with misalignment in a steel deck plate. The stress concentration factor of welded specimens with a misalignment is also verified by a finite element method. The main conclusions obtained from this study are as follows Experimental results of full-scaled U-type trough rib models have indicated that fatigue life depends on misalignments of welded joints in steel deck plate ; The more misalignments are, the less the fatigue life is. It has also shown that fatigue crack propagates from the welded root to the bead surface. We have also obtained the same results from both the fatigue test of welded specimens with a misalignment and the stress analysis of a finite element method.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.274-278
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• 2004

This study investigates the fatigue characteristics of SM 490 A material specimens for the railway vehicle due to the welding type. The more stress ratio decreases, the more strength of fillet welded specimen decreases. At speciallly, when the stress ratio of TN(Plate with transverse fillet welded rib) specimens decreases 0.5, 0.1, and -0.1, the fatigue limit decreases unifomly. The strength of TN is higher than it of NCN in the compare of fillet welding type, but the strength of NCN(Non load-carrying cruciform fillet welded joint) is higher than it of CN(Load-carrying cruciform fillet welded joint), which these specimens have the rib in the both side. We analysis the strains on the weld positions of the TN specimens during the fatigue test for the investigation of crack initiation and crack growth. In the theses results, we could find the fatigue crack initiation point and time.

• International journal of steel structures
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1589-1597
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• 2018

Fatigue tests and numerical analysis were carried out to evaluate the fatigue performance at the U-rib to deck welded joint in steel box girder. Twenty specimens were tested corresponding to different penetration rates (80 and 100%) under fatigue bending load, and the fatigue strength was investigated based on hot spot stress (HSS) method. The detailed stress distribution at U-rib to deck welded joint was analyzed by the finite element method, as well as the stress intensity factor of weld root. The test results show that the specimens with fully penetration rate have longer crack propagation life due to the welding geometry, resulting in higher fatigue failure strength. The classification of FAT-90 is reasonable for evaluating fatigue strength by HSS method. The penetration rate has effect on crack propagation angle near the surface, and the 1-mm stress below weld toe and root approves to be more suitable for fatigue stress assessment, because of its high sensitivity to weld geometry than HSS.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.135-148
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• 2015

The cutout hole locating at the place of rib-to-diaphragm welded connection is adopted to minimize the restraint, which is caused by the floor-beam web to rib rotation at the support due to the unsymmetrical loads in orthotropic deck. In practice, an inevitable problem is that there is a large number of welding joint's cracks formed at the edge of cutout hole. In this study, a comparative experiment is carried out with two types of cutout hole, the circular arc transition and the vertical transition. The fatigue life estimation of specimens is investigated with the application of the structural hot spot stress approach by finite element analyses. The results are compared with the ones of the fatigue tests which are carried out on these full-scale specimens. Factors affecting the stress range are also studied.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.48-55
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• 2013

In this study, fatigue tests were performed on longitudinal out-of-plane gusset fillet welded joints and transverse non-load-carrying cruciform rib fillet welded joints, and then applicability of hammer-peening treatment on improvement of fatigue life for fatigue damaged weld joints were investigated. Fatigue tests were carried out on three types of gusset and rib welded specimens: as-welded specimens, post-weld hammer peened specimens and hammer peened specimens at 50% of as-welded specimen's fatigue life. Before and after hammer peening treatment, the geometry of weld toes and surface stresses near weld toes were measured. As a result of hammer peening treatment, compressive residual stresses of 30-83MPa were introduced near weld toes of the gusset and rib welded joints, and 130% increase in fatigue life and fatigue limit of the welded joints could be realized by hammer peening treatment at 50% fatigue life of as-welded conditions.

• International Journal of Railway
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.89-92
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• 2012

Effective notch stress, as an approach to evaluate the local stress at a notch (weld toe or root), is defined as the total stress assuming linear-elastic material behavior. This method can be effectively used to evaluate the fatigue performance of welded joints. In this study, finite element analysis results using the effective notch stress method were correlated with fatigue test results of rib-to-deck welded joints in a steel orthotropic bridge deck. Effective notch stress approach provided a good correlation with the crack pattern observed in the full-scale fatigue test. A higher effective notch stress at the critical weld toe than at the weld root was consistent with the dominant crack pattern observed at the weld toe during testing. The effective notch stress at the toe on the deck plate was about 80% higher than that on the rib; no cracks at the weld toe on the rib in the testing were observed. Maximum effective notch stress at the weld root occurred on the upper side of the root notch, which indicates that cracks are more likely to propagate into the deck plate, not into the weld metal. This is also consistent with the observed crack pattern in which the crack from the root propagated upward into the deck plate. No such crack pattern, propagating into the weld metal, was observed in the testing.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.343-350
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• 1999

Orthotropic steel bridge decks are potentially liable to cause fatigue cracks due to weld defects, residual stresses, and in-plane or out-of-plane stresses. In particular, the cracks propagated through deckplate in longitudinal rib to deckplate joints occur at weld toe and weld root due to stress concentrations. Numerical parametric studies are performed to show the Influence of the parameters on the stress concentration at the connection between the longitudinal rib and the deckplate. The parameters include root gap, toe angle $\theta$, toe radius $\rho$, and weld penetration. This study provides a fundamental point for the improvement of fatigue resistance and the estimation of the fatigue crack propagation in wekded joint details.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.799-813
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• 2020

Fatigue cracks of rib-to-deck (RD) joints have been frequently observed in the orthotropic steel decks (OSD) using conventional U-ribs (CU). Thickened edge U-rib (TEU) is proposed to enhance the fatigue strength of RD joints, and its effectiveness has been proved through fatigue tests. In-depth full-scale tests are further carried out to investigate both the fatigue strength and fractography of RD joints. Based on the test result, the mean fatigue strength of TEU specimens is 21% and 17% higher than that of CU specimens in terms of nominal and hot spot stress, respectively. Meanwhile, the development of fatigue cracks has been measured using the strain gauges installed along the welded joint. It is found that such the crack remains almost in semi-elliptical shape during the initiation and propagation. For the further application of TEUs, the design curve under the specific survival rate is required for the RD joints using TEUs. Since the fatigue strength of welded joints is highly scattered, the design curves derived by using the limited test data only are not reliable enough to be used as the reference. On this ground, an experiment-numerical hybrid approach is employed. Basing on the fatigue test, a probabilistic assessment model has been established to predict the fatigue strength of RD joints. In the model, the randomness in material properties, initial flaws and local geometries has been taken into consideration. The multiple-site initiation and coalescence of fatigue cracks are also considered to improve the accuracy. Validation of the model has been rigorously conducted using the test data. By extending the validated model, large-scale databases of fatigue life could be generated in a short period. Through the regression analysis on the generated database, design curves of the RD joint have been derived under the 95% survival rate. As the result, FAT 85 and FAT 110 curves with the power index m of 2.89 are recommended in the fatigue evaluation on the RD joint using TEUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress respectively. Meanwhile, FAT 70 and FAT 90 curves with m of 2.92 are suggested in the evaluation on the RD joint using CUs in terms of nominal stress and hot spot stress, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.16 no.3 s.70
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• pp.387-396
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• 2004

In this paper, stress analysis anda 3-point bending fatigue test were conducted on the full-scale specimen to investigate the effects of misalignment at the U-rib welded joint due to misfitting in the steel deck bridge. In addition, the researchers investigated the direction and starting point of fatigue cracks by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and beach mark. The results of the stress analysis show that maximum stress occurred at the bottom corner of the U-rib, and that the stress was large when the magnitude of the misalignment was large. On the other hand, the results of the static loading test of the full-scale specimen show that stress was large at the bottom corner of the U-rib. In addition, fatigue life was short when the misalignment was large and fatigue life was short when the misalignment was large and fatigue life was short when the misalignment was large and fatigue life was large when the misalignment was small, as indicated by the results of both the static loading test and the fatigue test. From the observation of the failure surface, fatigue cracks began manifesting at the root of the base metal and proceeded to the bead surface (weld toe).

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.33-44
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• 2013

Although many studies have been performed for the structural details of orthotropic steel deck, most of them were focused on the trough rib of standard type, but not for orthotropic steel deck with longitudinal rib of open section used at beginning of the deck. In order to investigate the cause of fatigue crack for orthotropic steel deck bridge serviced 31 years with longitudinal rib of open section, in this study, the behavior characteristics of target structural details were analyzed based on measurement data under real traffic condition. Also the typical loading truck passing the target bridges was estimated with the structural analysis detailed, and the stresses and deformation patterns of target structural details were analyzed by performing the detailed structural analysis. Based upon the analysis, retrofitting methods of the fatigue crack were suggested and its validation was examined. From this study, it was clarified that fatigue crack of longitudinal rib with open section were affected with the stress increment by shear deformation in the rib and the occurrence of alternative stress due to moving vehicle. In addition, it was known that it is important to perform fatigue design reflected the local behavior of the structural details.