Fatigue life of unified riveted superstructures designed by Transmostproject with the introduction of increased axle loads

The article presents a study of the residual fatigue life of superstructures during the introduction of trains with increased axial loads on bridges with riveted superstructures, designed in the fifties of the last century. Unified metal superstructures have been in relatively heavy duty conditions for more than 60 years. During lcontinuous operation, processes occur in elements and joints that lead to the appearance and development of various damages and varying degree failures of hazard, so it is necessary to decide on the further operation of old bridge spans and their replacement. When determining the fatigue life, the linear addition hypothesis of fatigue damage accumulation was used, taking into account the increase in stresses with the introduction of increased axial loads. As a critical measure of damage, providing a given reliability, the value obtained from the calculation results of several hundred cracks in riveted superstructures of older design standards was adopted. The increase in load from the installation of a ballastless bridge floor is taken into account. To determine the residual fatigue life, fatigue data is used depending on the concentration of stresses magnitude in the attachments of the main truss elements. For a more accurate determination of the rivet joints operation stage, the author carried out a wear-out calculation through operation period. The introduction of heavier train loads will lead to an increase in the accumulation of fatigue damage in the elements. If weak rivets in attachments are found during inspection, they must be replaced with high-strength bolts to increase fatigue life. The author obtained that the residual fatigue life of the span structures designed by Transmostproekt has not yet been fully exhausted even with the introduction of heavy trains with a wagon axle load of 27–30 tons.