Fatigue safety of riveted bridges - Part 2: Verification based on the monitoring data of the project "Railway Bridge at Eglisau"

Fatigue safety of riveted bridges Part 2: Verification based on the monitoring data of the project "Railway Bridge at Eglisau". Long term monitoring over one year has been conducted on the riveted Railway Bridge over the Rhine at Eglisau. Measured values were exploited by rainflow analysis and served as the basis for the verification of fatigue safety. As the locations of measurements are generally not identical with the cross sections of verification, measured strains respectively stresses, were extrapolated to the relevant verification cross section by means of factors that were obtained by structural analysis. Using these values, all fatigue relevant structural details were first verified with respect to the fatigue limit. Then, damage accumulation calculation according to the Palmgren-Miner rule and based on Wohler curves for riveted details was performed for those structural details where the fatigue limit check was not fulfilled. Sufficient fatigue safety could finally be verified for the whole riveted structure and an additional service life of at least 50 years for the most fatigue relevant structural element.