Effect of Temperature on the Fatigue Life Assessment of Suspension Bridge Steel Deck Welds under Dynamic Vehicle Loading

The present study proposes a novel fatigue life prediction considering the temperature load, which may be neglected in the traditional assessment of suspension bridge steel deck welds under dynamic vehicle load. Vehicle fatigue, pavement temperature, and temperature gradient models are developed based on the test data from the weight-in-motion system, U-rib welds, pavement temperature, and environment temperature. The U-rib-to-deck and U-rib-to-U-rib welds fatigue stresses are obtained considering both vehicle and temperature loads with transient analysis method in ANSYS package. Then, the temperature gradient fatigue stress spectra are calculated. After that, the fatigue life of two weld types is predicted considering the coupled vehicle-temperature loads. The results indicate that the fatigue stress varies linearly with the temperature of the asphalt concrete. The effect of the temperature on the weld’s fatigue life decreases as the distance increases between the welds and the pavement. The dynamic vehicle load results in a higher fatigue stress than the temperature gradient, indicating that the vehicle load contributes mainly to the bridge’s fatigue damage. Finally, it is calculated that the fatigue damage of two weld types is magnified 5.06 and 1.50 times when the temperature effect is considered after 100-year service of Nanxi Yangtze River Bridge.