Extending fatigue life of weld roots in fillet-welded cover plates by installing tap bolt joints

This study developed a tap bolt joint method with tap holes in both plates as a preventive maintenance method against weld root failure in fillet-welded cover plates. The method aims to reduce the relative displacement between two plates, which is the cause of weld root crack. To evaluate the fatigue strength of the joint and the relative displacement of the plates, fatigue tests and finite element analysis were conducted to examine the fundamental characteristics of tap bolt joints. The results showed that the fatigue strength of the tap bolt joint was distributed around the JSSC-E class under cyclic tensile axial loads and the JSSC-A class under cyclic compressive axial loads and was significantly higher than the JSSC-S class under cyclic shear loads. Furthermore, tap bolt joints were installed in fillet-welded sole plates in plate girders, and their effectiveness was examined through fatigue tests and finite element analysis. The results showed that the tap bolt joint method can extend the fatigue life of the weld root of a sole plate.