Determination of Fatigue Category and Numerical Analysis of the Stringer to Crossbeam Connection of Riveted Steel Railway Bridges

Fatigue resistance of riveted steel railway bridges, built in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, represents one of the problems affecting their remaining lifetime. The connection of riveted stringer to crossbeam of steel railway bridges with open decks represents a typical fatigue prone detail of these bridges. This structural detail is characterized by the frequent occurrence of fatigue cracks in the stringer web. The standard fatigue assessment method according to Eurocode EN 1993-1-9 is based on categorization of the structural details. When the detail category is known, the fatigue assessment may be done using the appropriate S-N curve, which relates the fatigue life of the detail to the stress range caused by variable load. However, the categorization of riveted details in the standard mentioned above is not sufficient for practical fatigue assessment. In order to define the fatigue category of this detail more properly, the laboratory tests on specially adapted specimens were performed. The paper deals with laboratory investigation of the riveted connection of stringer to crossbeam and numerical simulation of this structural detail using FEM software.