• Correia, Jfo
• Da Silva, All
• Fernandes, Aa
• De Jesus, Amp

Abstract

The maintenance and safety of existing bridges is a major concern of governmental agencies. In particular the safety of old riveted bridges fabricated and placed into service at the end of the 19th century deserves particular attention. These structures are susceptible to exhibit high fatigue damage levels due to their long operational period with increasing traffic intensity associated to an original design not covering the fatigue phenomenon. This paper reviews recent joint investigation performed by Universities of Porto and Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, in particular concerning the fatigue characterization of old materials from representative Portuguese riveted bridges and the assessment of the remnant life of old riveted bridges. Strain-life and fatigue crack propagation data has been derived for materials from the Eiffel, Luiz I, Fao, Pinhao and Trezoi bridges. Furthermore, the fatigue resistance of riveted joints has been evaluated for several riveted joints, using original materials from the referred bridges. The proposed fatigue data is valuable to perform residual life assessment of structural members of existing bridges, using traditional approach based on SN design curves and also using fracture mechanics principles. A review of recent research studies concerning the residual fatigue life assessment of ancient riveted Portuguese bridges is presented.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• crack
• fatigue