Effect of Local Damage Caused by Overweight Trucks on the Durability of Steel Bridges

摘要

Over the lifetime of a bridge, traffic loads cause numerous stress-strain cycles within its components which in turn lead to the slow accumulation of damage in them. The rate of progression of this damage with time is affected by several human-induced and natural factors such as volume and type of traffic loads, environmental conditions, and maintenance practices. Traffic volume and truck weights have been steadily increasing with the growth and technical development of the freight industry. With increased truck weight limits being anticipated in the future, a detailed study of the potential detrimental effects of such increases, especially due to overweight trucks, on the durability of bridges has become necessary. In this paper, a computational approach is presented to assess the effect of different load-related and environmental factors on the durability of steel bridge components using detailed finite-element (FE) models that were calibrated using data from inspection reports of real bridges. It is shown that this computational approach, with certain assumptions, is capable of quantifying the damage due to loading and environmental factors. This approach is also used to study different scenarios of how this damage could potentially affect the life of steel bridge components as loading and environmental conditions are varied. Results from the research reported in this paper show that the effect of increasing trucks weight limits on these bridges can be quantified and used to generate deterioration curves for the various bridge components. This information can also be used by highway agencies to streamline bridge maintenance and operations.