Fatigue Assessment of Suspension Bridges Carrying Rail and Road Traffic Based on SHMS

Abstract:

Many long-span suspension bridges have been built around the world, and many of them carry both of rail and road traffic. Fatigue assessment shall be performed to ensure the safety and functionality of these bridges. This paper first briefly introduces the main procedure of fatigue assessment recommended by British Standard, and then it is applied to the Tsing Ma suspension bridge in Hong Kong. Vehicle spectrum of trains and road vehicles are investigated based on the measurement data of trains and road vehicles recorded by the Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS) installed on the bridge so that fatigue damage assessment will be more realistic and accurate. Stress influence lines corresponding to railway tracks and highway lanes are established based on a complex finite element bridge model so that an accurate vehicle-induced stress response can be estimated based on them. The fatigue-critical locations for different type of bridge components are identified in terms of the maximum stress range due to a standard train running over the bridge. Finally, the fatigue life at the fatigue-critical locations due to both trains and road vehicles are estimated, and the result indicates the bridge is in very good condition.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 204-208)
• Pages: 2019-2027
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.204-208.2019
• Online since: October 2012
• Authors: Zhi Wei Chen, You Lin Xu, Kai Yuen Wong
• Keywords: Fatigue, Highway, Railway, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), Suspension Bridge

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