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ABSTRACT
Fatigue analysis of steel and composite bridges under real traffic is usually performed using
numerical models of the structures, due to the difficulty of in situ monitoring of all the
structural details. The common assumption is that if the numerical model reproduces well the
real behaviour of the structure at some reference points, extrapolation of the results to other
points is reasonable. This paper investigates the different aspects of the fatigue analysis of
approach viaducts of the new Sado River railway crossing, in Portugal.
Keywords: Fatigue analysis, structural dynamics, steel and composite railway bridges.
INTRODUCTION
The fatigue analysis of steel-concrete composite bridges under real traffic is a challenging
task. In situ monitoring of all the details of the structure is not economically (and even
technically) feasible and thus, numerical models are usually employed for that analysis. It can
be assumed that the extrapolation of numerical model results to any point are accurate if the
numerical model reproduces well the real behaviour of the structural system, namely in some
reference points. This paper investigates the fatigue performance of the approach viaducts of
the new Sado River railway crossing, in Portugal, shown in Figure 1, in the context of a
research project on the in situ monitoring of railway steel bridge details. These approach
viaducts have a twin girder steel-concrete composite solution, which is a common design for
railway bridges with spans up to 65 m.
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
To improve the knowledge on the fatigue prone details of the approach viaducts, in a
preliminary stage of this research project it is performed a numerical study using the Damage
Accumulation Method with nominal stresses obtained from a finite element model. The
Section 2 focuses on the bridge and its approach viaducts, while Section 3 performs a
description on the experimental work developed in a previous work with the aim of
characterize the real traffic (Albuquerque et al., 2012). Section 4 presents the numerical
model developed for the selected approach span. Finally, Section 5 presents some of the
results from the fatigue analysis which have been performed on the structure, according to the
EN 1993-1-9 (2005).
Fig. 2 - Overview of the new Sado River railway crossing (Mouro, 2010).
The bridge is intended to accommodate two ballasted rail tracks, requiring a typical deck
width of 13 m, nevertheless only the upstream track is in operation at the current time. The
entire north viaduct (1115 m) and the main bridge (480 m) follow a straight alignment, while
the south viaduct includes a straight alignment over 175 m, from the transition pier at the
main bridge, followed by a curved alignment 800 m long and finally a 165 m long straight
section.
Over the Sado River, the steel-concrete composite solution includes a bowstring arch bridge
with a continuous deck 480 m long and three spans of 160 m each. The drawback of this
option, according to the designers (Reis et al., 2010), is the need to increase the deck width to
insert the arch and to protect it from accidental loads due to train derailment. Thus, at the
approach viaducts it is necessary to widen the deck, from 13 m typical width to 15.7 m, in
order to insert the arch on bridge axis. The transition between different deck widths occurs in
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
only two spans of the approach viaducts, both in the north and the south. The superstructure
(steel girders and deck) of the others approach spans remains in a straight alignment.
To take into account track-structure interaction effects, the superstructure of approach
viaducts is divided into continuous bridge decks, as long as possible, separated by simply
supported neutral spans (GRID, 2006). Also, displacements due to temperature expansion
are minimized by adopting the neutral spans. This work focuses on the second neutral
span at the north side and near to the first bowstring arch of the main bridge (Figure 3), which
is a 45 m span consisting of a composite slab-girder deck.
Lisbon Algarve
45 m
Sado River
The twin plate girders of this approach span are 2600 mm deep, as shown in Figure 4, with a
top flange 700 mm wide and a thickness that varies from 40 mm at support to 90 mm at span
sections. The lower flange is 1000 mm wide and its thickness varies from 60 mm at support to
120 mm at span sections. The web thickness varies from 25 mm at support to 16 mm at span
sections. The reinforced concrete slab (concrete grade C40/50 and steel reinforcement with
500 N/mm2 yield stress) acting in composite action with the steel part, varies in thickness
across the width, with a maximum of 40 cm on the bridge axis and a minimum of 20 cm at the
limits.
The structure comprises cross diaphragms and horizontal bracing all in the form of steel
trusses, as shown in Figure 5. The vertical truss diaphragms are spaced 7500 mm apart and
are made of circular hollow sections of 193.7 and 139.7 mm dia., both sections with 8 mm
wall thickness. The diaphragms near support sections at the piers are made of CHS of 193.7
mm dia., with 12 mm wall thickness due to the increased shear and torsion effects at these
locations (GRID, 2006).
At the level of the lower flange, horizontal bracing made from HEA 400 hot-rolled sections
are adopted, as illustrated in Figure 5, in order to provide an equivalent box section improving
the torsional deformability and torsional vibrations under eccentric railway traffic loads (Reis
et al., 2010; Rueda and Salcedo, 2012). The connections between the diaphragms and the
transverse stiffeners of the plate girders make use of grade 8.8 prestressed bolts (Reis et al.,
2010).
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
1585
>257
100 167 225 225
200 225 100 225 125 125
25 50 25 100
83
20 60
1570 260
350 350
Fig. 4 - Typical wide cross section of the approach viaducts (units: centimetres).
The webs of the plate girders have transverse stiffeners made of IPE hot-rolled sections.
Between each diaphragm there is a transverse stiffener, resulting in a spacing of 3750 mm. An
additional transverse stiffener is inserted at the web panel adjacent to the piers in order to
increase the ultimate web resistance under shear (Reis et al., 2010). The entire steelwork of
this neutral approach span has a total of 150 tonnes with required improved toughness
properties against brittle fracture (min. 27 J at 50 C) in S355 steel grade.
100
web IPE400
var. thick.
HEA400 350
700
diaphragm
bracing
350
100
375 187.5 187.5
750
Fig. 5 - Horizontal bracing and steelwork plan view detail (units: centimetres).
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
According to the project authors (GRID, 2006; Reis et al., 2010), the design was developed
taking into consideration the Eurocodes for actions and for the design of steel and steel-
concrete composite bridges. Besides that, designers highlight that steel design at span sections
was mainly controlled by fatigue issues (Reis et al., 2010). Further information about the
bridge structure and its details can be found in Reis et al. (2010).
The traffic characterization system is performed both in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Qualitative information is provided by an IP Camera (Figure 7a) placed at one hanger of the
bridge (Figure 7b).
Quantitative information is provided by shear strain gages in the rails. These strain gages are
placed at 3 different sections of the rail (see Fig. 8). At each section, a full Wheatstone bridge
is installed. The principle of axle load measurement is based on proportionality between the
vertical load applied to the rail in the middle of two consecutive measurement sections and
the difference shear strain between them (Albuquerque et al., 2012).
The data is acquired and processed by the National Instruments cRIO-9024 and, then, stored
in a local disk and also sent, via a 3G connection, to a computer at FEUP. The long-term
monitoring system was applied, during a commissioning phase, in the load test, planned by
the Laboratrio Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC).
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
Three different types of vehicles were used to load the bridge: a single power engine machine
(PEM), a short freight train (SFT) and a long freight train (LFT). In the case of the PEM, the
axle loads where known with high accuracy. Therefore, they were used on the calibration of
the traffic characterization system. For each position, the corresponding values of the strains
were measured for all the strain gages.
In a service phase, the traffic was monitored for a real traffic scenario. At this railway line,
traffic is composed mainly by fast passenger trains, such as Alfa Pendular (see Fig. 7c), with
speeds up to 220 km/h, and heavy freight trains, proceeding from or to the sea port of Sines.
A very good agreement between the experimental and the numerical results was generally
found (Albuquerque et al., 2012). Despite of the installed traffic monitoring system on the
bridge, in the current work it will used the Eurocode fatigue standard traffic in a preliminary
stage.
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
modelled by shell finite elements (SHELL181). The steel sections of the diaphragms, the
ballast retaining walls and the rails were modelled by beam elements (BEAM44) positioned at
the corresponding centres of gravity. The sleepers, rail pads and ballast layer were modelled
by solid elements (SOLID185).
Rigid link elements (MPC184) were introduced to connect the nodes of the slab to the bottom
of the ballast and to the girders top flange, in order to ensure the compatibility of
displacements and rotations between these nodes. After some sensitivity analysis, an average
mesh dimension of 0.5 m was adopted, with a fine mesh near to the transverse stiffeners,
resulting in a mesh with variable spacing along the deck.
Nodal mass elements (MASS21) were used to reproduce the self-weight of the inoperative
railway track and the non-structural components along the deck, such as the guardrails and the
sidewalk pavement. In order to equally distribute the mass values over an irregular mesh, an
APDL routine was created to compute the influence area of each node in the slab. Therefore,
the final finite element model resulted in a total of 23,592 nodes, 39,243 elements and
141,552 degrees of freedom. The isometric views, the cross section and the side view of the
numerical model with all mentioned elements are presented in Figure 9.
c) Side view
Fig. 9 - Overview of the finite element numerical model of the selected neutral approach span.
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
A relevant number of vibration modes were reviewed, namely vertical bending and torsion of
the deck. Figure 10 presents the three main global vibration mode shapes of the approach
viaduct obtained by a modal analysis with ANSYS (2013).
Fig. 10 - Main global vibration mode shapes from the numerical model.
It must be emphasized that, in the dynamic analysis performed in the subsequent sections, a
typical value of 0.5 % for the damping ratio was used for all vibration modes, as
recommended for steel-concrete composite bridges by EN 1991-2 (2003). In Table 1, the
information on the frequency and damping ratios of some vibration modes is summarized.
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
- adoption of suitable SN curves to describe the fatigue resistance of the detail; the curves
proposed by the EN 1993-1-9 (2005) are employed; moreover, for a safe life assessment
with high consequences of failure, the standard recommends that the fatigue strength
reduction factor, Mf, should be taken as 1.35;
- computation of the fatigue damage, by using a linear damage accumulation model, as
proposed by Miner (1945), according to which the damage factor, D, is given by:
k
n1 n2 n3 n
D= + + + ... = i 1.0 (1)
N1 N 2 N 3 i =1 N i
where ni is the number of applied load cycles for a given stress range and Ni denotes the
number of resisting load cycles for a given stress range. Fatigue failure is reached for D = 1.
In this numerical study, the main assumption of the referred methodology is to presume as
nominal stresses the stresses obtained from a finite element model at some specific points,
related to detail categories used to determine the corresponding SN curve.
It is important to highlight that for railway bridges dynamic analyses shall be carried out in
the case of high-speed traffic, i.e., when the Maximum Permitted Vehicle Speed exceeds 200
km/h (EN 1991-2, 2003). Proper models shall be also used for the distribution of the axle
forces through the rails, sleepers and ballast. Finally, the fatigue life estimation, in years, is
given by the inverse of the damage factor for 1 year of traffic.
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
80
56
71
63
Fig. 11 - Approach viaduct steelwork with the identification of fatigue prone details.
1000
80 Mf = 1.35
Mf = 1.00
log R (MPa)
100
80 D
L
10
1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+07 1.E+08 1.E+09
log N
a) Fatigue structural detail category 80
1000
71
log R (MPa)
100
71
D
L
10
1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+07 1.E+08 1.E+09
log N
b) Fatigue structural detail category 71
Fig. 12 - Fatigue structural details, SN curves and classification according to EN 1993-1-9 (2005).
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
1000
63
log R (MPa)
100
63
D
L
10
1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+07 1.E+08 1.E+09
log N
c) Fatigue structural detail category 63
1000
56
log R (MPa)
100
56
D
L
10
1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06 1.E+07 1.E+08 1.E+09
log N
d) Fatigue structural detail category 56
Fig. 12 - Fatigue structural details, SN curves and classification according to EN 1993-1-9, 2005 (continued)
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
(MPa)
(MPa)
(MPa)
20
30 30
10
15 15 0
0 0 -10
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
Time (s) Time (s) Time (s)
(MPa)
(MPa)
20
30 30
10
0 15 15
-10 0 0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0
Time (s) Time (s) Time (s)
(MPa)
(MPa)
30 30 30
15 15 15
0 0 0
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
Time (s) Time (s) Time (s)
(MPa)
(MPa)
30 30 30
15 15 15
0 0 0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
Time (s) Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 13 - Stress histories for the structural detail 56 due to the Standard Fatigue Trains.
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
Cycles (ni)
Cycles (ni)
8 8 30
8 8
20
4 2 4 2 10
1.5 1 1.5 1 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 0.50.5
0 0 0
1 2 3 31 1 2 3 31 1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 15 19
R (MPa) R (MPa) R (MPa)
Cycles (ni)
21.5
Cycles (ni)
20 40 8
22.5
10 4 20 13 4 2.5 2
1 1.5 2 1.5 1 1 0.50.5 1 1 1 1 1
1
0 0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 15 17 1 2 49 1 3 10 15 16 18 37
R (MPa) R (MPa) R (MPa)
Cycles (ni)
Cycles (ni)
8 33.5
8 40 8
4 20 4 3
1 1 2.5 1 1
1 1
0 0 0
1 2 4 36 1 34 1 2 3 15
R (MPa) R (MPa) R (MPa)
Cycles (ni)
Cycles (ni)
8.5
8 8 8
5 5
4 4 3 4 3
1 0.5 1 1 0.5 1 1
0 0 0
1 18 1 3 4 5 37 1 3 4 5 37
R (MPa) R (MPa) R (MPa)
Fig. 15 - Normal stresses for Fatigue Train 5 in the structural detail 56.
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
Fatigue Damage
Three standard mixes of rail traffic are given as a basis for calculating the fatigue life
estimation of structures, depending on whether the structure carries standard traffic mix,
predominantly heavy traffic or light traffic (EN 1991-2, 2003). Each traffic scenario is
defined in terms of an annual traffic tonnage of 25x106 tonnes with variety and number of
Standard Fatigue Trains per day on each track. Thus, the damage values associated with an
isolated passage of each train were combined, in order to obtain the damages in a lifespan
period of 100 years for different traffic mixes (see Tables 2 to 4).
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
1000
log R (MPa)
100
10
2.E+02 2.E+03 2.E+04 2.E+05 2.E+06 2.E+07 2.E+08
log N
light traffic heavy traffic standard mix
Also, as shown in Figure 17, in all cases the annual damage obtained is much lower than unity
for the three traffic scenarios (heavy, standard and light). Therefore, the most conditioning
traffic scenario, which is the heavy traffic mix, leads to an annual fatigue damage of 0.0075,
and consequently to a structure fatigue life estimation of 133 years.
0.008
0.007
Annual Damage
0.006
0.005
0.004
0.003
0.002
0.001
0
Heavy traffic mix Standard Traffic Mix Light traffic mix
Traffic Scenario
Fig. 17- Fatigue damage at the critical detail for different traffic scenarios.
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
3
40
35 2.5
30 f01 = 2,60 Hz
2
25 Mode 1 (2.60 Hz)
Amplitude
(MPa)
The total dynamic response of Figure 18a reveals that, at the critical detail zone, only the first
three global vibration modes with frequencies up to 3.63 Hz are expressive to the total stress
range. The local vibration mode of diaphragms (Mode 35) yields to a low contribution of 2
MPa, while local vibration modes of the concrete slab and higher frequencies modes of the
steel web, such as Mode 109 are considered negligible to the total dynamic response of the
investigated structure.
In the component associated with the Mode 1, f01 = 2.60 Hz, it was observed a low resonance
effect, also confirmed by the Fourier Transform of the signal (Figure 12b). This is related to
an axle spacing between wagons of the FT5 equal to 4 m (Figure 19), in combination with a
speed of 80 km/h, considering the first integer submultiple (80/3.6/4/2 = 2.78 Hz).
It must be emphasized that the maximum stress obtained through a dynamic mode
superposition analysis (34 MPa) is different from that obtained through a static moving load
analysis with dynamic enhancement (49 MPa). Moreover, since the dynamic properties of the
Fatigue Train 5 are unknown, the train-track-bridge interaction and the track irregularities
were not considered in this dynamic analysis.
2.1 4.4 2.1 1.8 5.7 1.8 1.8 5.7 1.8 1.8 5.7 1.8 1.8 5.7 1.8
2.0 2.1 2.1 2.0 1.8 1.8 2.0 1.8 1.8 2.0 1.8 1.8 2.0 1.8 1.8 2.0
2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
16.8 16.9 16.9 16.9 16.9 11x16.9
Fig. 19 - Arrangement of the Standard Fatigue Train 5 axle loads (EN 1991-2, 2003).
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure
CONCLUSIONS
The steel-concrete composite approach viaducts of new Sado River railway crossing are under
study concerning its fatigue behaviour. In this kind of analysis, the finite element model of the
structure is a very important tool. Nevertheless, it is important to assure that the developed
numerical model reproduces well the response of the real structure.
In the present work, a fatigue analysis on selected structural details of one neutral span of
the approach viaducts has been carried out. The main conclusions of this research work can be
summarized as follows:
- The railway traffic characterization made on previous works reveals to be very useful,
because it enables the extrapolation of the results to other points of the structure. Future
research into the fatigue behaviour of the railway viaducts over the River Sado will take
into account monitored real traffic;
- The detailed level of the structure finite element model allowed for fatigue analyses in
different points of the structure and for different traffic scenarios;
- The most critical detail was that on the longitudinal plate welded to the web girder below
the current active rail track. This plate is used in the connection of horizontal bracings of
the structural system, which are very important to improve the torsional deformability
and torsional vibrations under eccentric railway traffic loads. Therefore, it leads to
conclude that normal forces on horizontal bracings may introduce important normal
stresses on the web girder. For that detail, the worst loading case was the crossing of the
Standard Fatigue Train 5;
- According to the Damage Accumulation Method low damage levels were found.
Therefore, the assessment of the numerical results obtained through FE analyses revealed
that the fatigue design of the investigated neutral span is on the safe side;
- The global vibration modes, with lower frequencies, are the most determinant to the total
response of the investigated approach span at the critical detail;
- Local approaches to fatigue will in the future applied to the critical location detected in
this paper. Also, multiaxiality of the stress histories will be investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, CNPq,
Brazil, through a research project related to evaluation of structural performance and dynamic
response monitoring of bridges is gratefully acknowledged. Support from the research team
on High-Speed Rail field of Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto is also gratefully
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
[1]-Albuquerque, C., Calada, R., and Castro, P.M.S.T de., (2012). Fatigue Assessment of a
Bowstring Railway Bridge, Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on
Computational Structures Technology, Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK.
[2]-Albuquerque, C., Pinto, N., Calada, R., Gabriel, J., (2013). Continuous monitoring of
traffic and fatigue critical structural components of the new railway bridge over the River
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Topic_C: Fracture and Fatigue
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