• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 1986

Welded connectors of the cover plates, the transverse stiffeners of the plate girders, and the gusset plates of the plates girders or box girders, were selected as studying objects. A simplified method of drawing the S-N curves in these welded joints by a computer program without the direct fatigue tests was established. The plots on the S-N curve using the values from the practical fatigue tests were compared with the results from the method of the computer programming. The results of these studies are as follows. It appeared that the fatigue life by calculation method was a little less than the practical fatigue life from the actual tests. The latter values included both life $N_c$ of occurrence of initial crack $a_i$ and the life $N_p$ of propagation of critical crack. On the other hand, the former values included only the life $N_p$. Therefore, these results should be considered as justifiable ones. Since the difference between the two results was not significant, the results by calculation method should be in the conservation side when the safety of the structures was considered. Consequently, the results by calculation method should be applicable to the fracture fatigue design of structure. For reference, the same fatigue tests were performed with the specimens of 3 pieces in each case made of the low-strength steel, SS 41. The results went unexpected showing that the fatigue strength was lower in the case of low-strength steel. That is, in the case of the cover plate, the fatigue strength became slowly higher than the case of high-strength steel, SWS 50. That was observed when the maximum testing stress was higher than $14kg/mm^2$. In addition, in the case of the transverse stiffener, the fatique strength became rapidly higher than the case of SWS 50. That was observed when the maximum testing stress was lower than $31kg/mm^2$. It was thought that more such fatigue tests should be performed for more reliable results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.5A
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• pp.407-415
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• 2010

In Korea, more than 90% of the total number of steel bridges built for 40~70 m span length is a steel box-girder bridge type. A steel box-girder bridge is suitable for long span or curved bridges with outstanding flexural and torsional rigidity as well as good constructability and safety. However, a steel box-girder bridge is uneconomical, requiring many secondary members and workmanship such as stiffeners and ribs requiring welding attachments to flanges or webs. Therefore, in US and Japan, a plate girder bridge, which is relatively cheap and easy to construct is generally used. One type of the plate girder bridge is the two- or three-main girder plate bridge, which is a composite plate girder bridge that minimizes the number of required main girders by increasing the distance between the adjacent girders. Also, for the simplification of girder section, the stiffener which requires attachment to the web is not required. The two-main steel girder plate bridge is a representative type of plate girder bridges, which is suitable for bridges with 10 m effective width and has been developed in the early 1960s in France. To ensure greater safety of two- or three-main girder plate bridges, a larger steel section is used in the bridge domestically than in Europe or Japan. Also, the total number of two- or three-main girder plate bridge constructed in Korea is significantly less than the steel box girder bridge due to a lack of designers' familiarity with more complex design detailing of the bridge compare to that of a steel box girder bridge design. In this study, a new construction method called Turn Over method is proposed to minimize the steel section size used in a two- or three-main girder plate bridge by applying prestressing force to the member using confining concrete section's weight to reduce construction cost. Also, a full scale 20 m Turn Over girder specimen and a Turn Over girder bridge specimen were tested to evaluate constructability and structural safety of the members constructed using Turn Over process.