Performance-based fatigue evaluation of concrete girder bridges

Concrete bridges are prone to fatigue failure under repeated vehicles loads. In recent years, the traffic volume and vehicle weights of highway bridges have been continuously increasing, making concrete bridge components fatigue problem more obviously. In this paper, weigh-in-motion (WIM) system was used to record the real traffic volume, and then the acquired load spectrum was applied on typical reinforced concrete bridges through Matlab program. Adopting these load spectrums, stress spectrum of concrete hollow slab, T-shape and small box girder bridges was calculated. Based on calculation results, it is studied the relationship between fatigue stress and section types or span length. Fatigue performance of different concrete bridges was evaluated. Moreover, the influence of overload and corrosion on fatigue life was investigated. Analysis results can be used for performance-based design and fatigue performance evaluation for typical concrete girder bridges.