Study on Reasonable Hole Diameters for Fatigue Crack Drilling in Steel Bridge Deck

Abstract

Based on numerical simulation and fatigue tests, different types of crack were simulated and local full-scale specimens of typical fatigue details in steel bridge deck were designed for drilling. The relationship between the reasonable hole diameter, stress intensity factor K at the crack tip and yield strength σ_ys of the base metal was explored. The result demonstrates that the reasonable hole diameter is linearly related to $K^2/{\sigma }_{ys}^2$. The larger the ratio of K_III/K_I, the smaller the reasonable diameter required. Considering that K_III cannot be measured in real bridges, taking K_I ²/σ_ys as the basis for diameter selection can ensure a large surplus. The method of determining the hole diameter by K and σ_ys is applicable when the crack length is relatively short compared with the boundary size. In addition, the stress intensity factor measured by the two-strain-gage method is slightly higher than that calculated by extended finite element method, with an average error of about 10%, which has the accuracy required for real-bridge application.

Keywords:

• fatigue crack
• drilling stop-hole
• reasonable hole diameter
• stress intensity factor
• yield strength

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

The data supporting the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work is sponsored by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [Grant Number 2017YFE0128700]; the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province [KYCX22_0616].