Fatigue damage analysis on crack growth and fatigue life of welded bridge members with initial crack

The behavior of crack growth with a view to fatigue damage accumulation on the tip of cracks is discussed. Fatigue life of welded components with initial crack in bridges under traffic loading is investigated. The study is presented in two parts. Firstly, a new model of fatigue crack growth for welded bridge member under traffic loading is presented. And the calculate method of the stress intensity factor necessary for evaluation of the fatigue life of welded bridge members with cracks is discussed. Based on the concept of continuum damage accumulated on the tip of fatigue cracks, the fatigue damage law suitable for steel bridge member under traffic loading is modified to consider the crack growth. The proposed fatigue crack growth can describe the relationship between the cracking count rate and the effective stress intensity factor. The proposed fatigue crack growth model is then applied to calculate the crack growth and the fatigue life of two types of welded components with fatigue experimental results. The stress intensity factors are modified by the factor of geometric shape for the welded components in order to reflect the influence of the welding type and geometry on the stress intensity factor. The calculated and measured fatigue lives are generally in good agreement, at some of the initial conditions of cracking, for a welded component widely used in steel bridges.