Fatigue assessment of highway steel bridges in presence of seismic loading

In this study a LEFM (Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics) approach is used in a probabilistic context to evaluate the fatigue reliability of steel girder highway bridges in the presence of seismic loading. In the first part the fatigue damage is related to the traffic load produced by heavy trucks crossing the bridge; the second part deals with the fatigue damage related to seismic loading. Both damage typologies are analyzed using linear elastic fracture mechanics principles, and the time required for an initial crack propagation is calculated. Taking into account that the correlation between fatigue effects and seismic actions is not usually considered in the literature, this method could enable a better understanding of progressive damage phenomena due to fatigue related problems, and could give some new insights for increasing the remaining fatigue life of a large number of steel bridges in seismic zones.