Fatigue Testing of Galvanized and Ungalvanized Socket Connections.

摘要

The fatigue resistance of welded traffic signal support structure details is an ongoing research topic being addressed at multiple universities primarily through state funding mechanisms. Fatigue problems with these structures have plagued multiple states, and a handful of collapses are identified in the open literature. Some premature failures have been hypothesized to have been caused by cracking in the zinc metal bath during galvanizing. This led to a fatigue testing matrix of socket connection geometries in a galvanized and ungalvanized state. Specimens were attained from two different pole manufacturers and fabricated using their own techniques. This report describes how the specimens were tested along with the results showing the difference in fatigue life between galvanized and ungalvanized structures. Generally, the galvanized specimens showed a one-category reduction in fatigue life versus identical specimens that were not galvanized.