Fatigue assessment of a composite railway bridge for high speed trains. Part I: Modeling and fatigue critical details

Steel bridges for high speed trains may sustain excessive fatigue damage due to stronger dynamic effects induced by the increased train speed. Dynamic tests were carried out on a composite railway bridge for high speed trains. A detailed finite element (FE) model of the bridge was established and validated by the dynamic test results. Six types of structural details in the bridge were considered for fatigue evaluation. The stress history of each concerned detail during a single train passage was generated by the validated FE model. The stress spectrum, obtained through Rainflow cycle counting of stress history, was used to calculate the fatigue damage of each detail, based on the detail category specified S–N design curve and the Palmgren–Miner damage rule. Among various structural details, the load carrying fillet weld around the gusset plate of the diagonal bracing at the bridge bearing is predicted to be the most fatigue critical detail. In this paper, a general methodology for determination of fatigue critical details is presented, which can serve as a basis of enhanced fatigue evaluation by using local stress approaches. In “Part II: conditions for which a dynamic analysis is needed” as the continuation of this paper, fatigue assessment will be investigated based on the dynamic stresses predicted by different approaches, i.e. static analysis considering dynamic amplification factor, direct dynamic analysis with a moving load model or a train–bridge interaction model.