Fatigue Performance of Steel-Concrete Composite Continuous Box Girder Bridge Deck

The fatigue performance of the bridge deck significantly affects the safety and durability of the overall steel-concrete composite beam bridge. Based on the vehicle flow information of the highway within 10 years, the fatigue performance of a two-way four-lane steel-concrete composite continuous beam bridge deck is studied in this research. The results indicate that the effect of the wheel track position is negligible for two-way four-lane bridge when the wheel track sways laterally, and the fatigue stress of bridge deck concrete is the most unfavorable while the loading position is 7.0 m away from the bridge center line. The fatigue damage decreases by 30%-40% when the centerline of the lane deviates from the most unfavorable stress position by 1 m. The punching fatigue of the concrete is more sensitive to the changes in slab thickness, and the thickness of the deck concrete slab is recommended to be >= 35 cm.

Automated summary

The fatigue performance of a two-way four-lane steel-concrete composite continuous beam bridge deck is studied based on the vehicle flow information of the highway within 10 years. The results show that the wheel track position has negligible effect and the thickness of the deck concrete slab is recommended to be >= 35 cm for reducing fatigue damage.