Effects of Fabrication Procedures and Weld Melt-Through on Fatigue Resistance of Orthotropic Steel Deck Welds

摘要

A common practice for the fabrication of orthotropic bridge deck in the US involves using 80% partial-joint-penetration groove welds (PJP) to join closed ribs to a deck plate. Avoiding weld melt-through with the thin rib plate may be difficult to achieve in practice because a tight fit may not always be achievable. When weld melt-through occurs, which is difficult to inspect inside the ribs, it is not clear how the geometric discontinuities would affect the fatigue resistance. Furthermore, a distortion control plan, which involves heat straightening or even pre-cambering, is also used for the fabricated orthotropic deck in order to meet the flatness requirement. It is unclear how repeated heating along the PJP weld line would affect the fatigue resistance.