Research on Residual Stresses and Deformation Butt Welds of U-Rib Jointing Sections in Orthotropic Steel Deck

This study investigates the residual Stresses and deformation of butt welds of U-rib joining section in the orthotropic steel deck, by field tests and numerical Simulation. An inland waterway bridge in Suzhou is used as a case. The surface residual Stresses in the in-situ welded specimens were measured by using the blind-hole method. Afterwards, a welding sub-model was developed based on the Goldak doublc-cllipsoid heat source model, to simulate the temperature and mechanical fields by the sequential coupling method and thermos-elastic-plastic method. The results show that residual Stresses concentrate within the heat affected zone 20 mm from the weld center. Both the longitudinal and transverse residual Stresses decrease from the center towards the two cnds, with cvcn distribution in the center of the stress paths in the welds. The longitudinal residual Stresses are tensile throughout the weld path, peaking at 400 MPa in the center, while the transverse residual Stresses are tensile in the center of weld path(with a maximum valuc of 160 MPa), but transition to relatively significant compressive Stresses at the ends(with a maximum value of 350 MPa). The stress distribution in the curved sections aligns with that in the straight sections. The specimen containing U-rib butt welds rcvcal out-of-plane deformation properties, where the maximum deformation occurs at the Start of the welds, reaching 2. 06 mm. As the distance of the location of the specimen deformation to the weld increases, the deformation gradually decreases, and cxhibits linear change in the zone away from the welding zone, accompanied by longitudinal bcnding deformation. © 2025 Wuhan Bridge Media Co., Ltd., MBEC. All rights reserved.