A review of damage types, stress concentration and fatigue effects in evaluating the residual load-carrying capacity of defective steel girders in railway bridges
Email:
nvhau@utc.edu.vn
Từ khóa:
steel girder, railway bridge, defect, stress concentration, fatigue, inspection standard
Tóm tắt
Steel girders of ageing railway bridges deteriorate through corrosion, perforation, loose fasteners and local deformation; in Vietnam, 465 of 1,862 railway bridges are classified as vulnerable and their residual capacity must be re-evaluated. Inspection practice rates such defects by visual condition and area loss, whereas most act through local stress concentration, which governs fatigue life and is invisible to global measurements; this gap has not been quantified. This paper reviews the common damage types and quantifies their effect through two mechanisms, area loss and stress concentration, using classical elasticity solutions, the fatigue notch factor and the power-law S-N relation; examines TCVN 14478:2025, Eurocode 3, AASHTO LRFD and AISC 360; and re-analyses the inspection data of a 40-year-old steel truss railway bridge under local stress conditions. For perforations and loose fasteners the stress concentration factor reaches 2.5 to 3.5, two to three times the effect of area loss, and reduces fatigue life to a few percent of the intact value; none of the four standards quantifies it. On the bridge, the nominal stress at a member with a missing bolt is 57 % of the design strength and the frequency change lies within measurement error, yet the local stress at the hole edge exceeds the yield strength and the fatigue life there falls by one to two orders of magnitude. A look-up table of stress concentration factors, a screening factor, a fatigue check with the notch factor and recommended actions are proposed as a screening basis for inspection, pending validation.Tài liệu tham khảo
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[2]. B. Imam, T. D. Righiniotis, M. K. Chryssanthopoulos, Probabilistic fatigue evaluation of riveted railway bridges, Journal of Bridge Engineering, 13 (2008) 237-244. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1084-0702(2008)13:3(237)
[3]. Ky Nam, Over 1,200 billion VND needed for emergency reinforcement of many railway bridges and tunnels (in Vietnamese), Bao Xay Dung, 04/06/2024. https://baoxaydung.vn/can-hon-1200-ty-dong-gia-co-khan-cap-nhieu-cau-ham-duong-sat-192240604194027245.htm, (accessed 7 September 2026)
[4]. Vietnam News Agency (VietnamPlus), The railway sector needs tens of trillions of VND to upgrade and repair infrastructure (in Vietnamese), 05/06/2024. https://www.vietnamplus.vn/nganh-duong-sat-can-hang-chuc-nghin-ty-dong-de-nang-cap-sua-chua-ha-tang-post957360.vnp, (accessed 7 September 2026)
[5]. Cong an Nhan dan Online, Weak bridges and level crossings - risks to railway safety (in Vietnamese), 14/07/2024. https://cand.com.vn/giao-thong/cau-yeu-duong-ngang-nguy-co-mat-an-toan-duong-sat-i737330/, (accessed 7 September 2026)
[6]. N. T. D., Repair of the Tam Bac bridge incident (Hai Phong) completed (in Vietnamese), Bao Cong Ly, 07/07/2024. https://congly.vn/khac-phuc-xong-su-co-hu-hong-cau-tam-bac-hai-phong-439439.html, (accessed 7 September 2026)
[7]. W. D. Pilkey, D. F. Pilkey, Peterson’s Stress Concentration Factors, 3rd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470211106
[8]. P. Albrecht, A. H. Naeemi, Performance of weathering steel in bridges, NCHRP Report 272, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 1984.
[9]. F. Mehri Sofiani, S. Chaudhuri, S. A. Elahi, K. Hectors, W. De Waele, A numerical study on tensile stress concentration in semi-ellipsoidal corrosion pits, Procedia Structural Integrity, 51 (2023) 51-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2023.10.066
[10]. I. Fernandez, J. M. Bairan, A. R. Mari, 3D FEM model development from 3D optical measurement technique applied to corroded steel bars, Construction and Building Materials, 124 (2016) 519-532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.07.133
[11]. A. Nishikata, Q. Zhu, E. Tada, Long-term monitoring of atmospheric corrosion at weathering steel bridges by an electrochemical impedance method, Corrosion Science, 87 (2014) 80-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2014.06.007
[12]. V. H. Mac, T. T. T. Nguyen, Analysis and assessment of the corrosion state of weathering steel at the connections of Cho Thuong bridge, Transport Journal, 12/2015. (in Vietnamese).
[13]. G. Kirsch, Die Theorie der Elastizitat und die Bedurfnisse der Festigkeitslehre, Zeitschrift des Vereines deutscher Ingenieure, 42 (1898) 797-807.
[14]. C. E. Inglis, Stresses in a plate due to the presence of cracks and sharp corners, Transactions of the Institute of Naval Architects, 55 (1913) 219-241.
[15]. A. Bao, C. Guillaume, C. Satter, A. Moraes, P. Williams, T. Kelly, Y. Guo, Testing and evaluation of web bearing capacity of corroded steel bridge girders, Engineering Structures, 238 (2021) 112276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.112276
[16]. J. D. DiBattista, D. E. J. Adamson, G. L. Kulak, Fatigue strength of riveted connections, Journal of Structural Engineering, 124 (1998) 792-797. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9445(1998)124:7(792)
[17]. B. Imam, T. D. Righiniotis, Fatigue evaluation of riveted railway bridges through global and local analysis, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 66 (2010) 1411-1421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2010.04.015
[18]. E. Bruhwiler, P. Kunz, Fatigue resistance and repairs of riveted bridge members, in: G. Marquis, J. Solin (Eds.), Fatigue Design and Reliability, ESIS Publication 23, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1999, pp. 207-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1566-1369(99)80043-0
[19]. E. Bertolesi, M. Buitrago, J. M. Adam, P. A. Calderon, Fatigue assessment of steel riveted railway bridges: Full-scale tests and analytical approach, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 182 (2021) 106664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2021.106664
[20]. S. Saad-Eldeen, Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares, Ultimate strength analysis of highly damaged plates, Marine Structures, 45 (2016) 63-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marstruc.2015.10.006
[21]. S. Saad-Eldeen, Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares, Experimental investigation on the residual strength of thin steel plates with a central elliptic opening and locked cracks, Ocean Engineering, 115 (2016) 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2016.01.030
[22]. T. T. Doan, X. H. Nguyen, V. P. Pham, An experimental study on the lateral-torsional buckling behavior of steel beams with initial geometric imperfections (in Vietnamese), Transport and Communications Science Journal, 77 (2026) 687-699. https://doi.org/10.47869/tcsj.77.5.6
[23]. N. E. Dowling, Mechanical Behavior of Materials: Engineering Methods for Deformation, Fracture, and Fatigue, 4th ed., Pearson, Boston, 2013.
[24]. European Committee for Standardization, EN 1993-1-9: Eurocode 3 - Design of steel structures - Part 1-9: Fatigue, CEN, Brussels, 2005.
[25]. J. W. Fisher, Fatigue and Fracture in Steel Bridges: Case Studies, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1984.
[26]. TCVN 14478:2025, Inspection of road bridges, Ministry of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 2025.
[27]. TCVN 11297:2016, Railway bridges - Inspection procedure, Ministry of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 2016.
[28]. TCVN 13594-6:2023, Railway bridge design with 1435 mm gauge, speed up to 350 km/h - Part 6: Steel structures, Ministry of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 2023.
[29]. European Committee for Standardization, EN 1993-1-5: Eurocode 3 - Design of steel structures - Part 1-5: Plated structural elements, CEN, Brussels, 2006.
[30]. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 9th ed., AASHTO, Washington, D.C., 2020.
[31]. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Manual for Bridge Evaluation, 3rd ed., AASHTO, Washington, D.C., 2018.
[32]. American Institute of Steel Construction, ANSI/AISC 360-22: Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, AISC, Chicago, IL, 2022.
[33]. H. Q. Pham, X. N. Ho, D. A. Mai, T. C. N. Nguyen, Damage detection of truss bridge using improved RNN based on model updating using data obtained from fiber Bragg grating sensors (in Vietnamese), Transport and Communications Science Journal, 75 (2024) 2000-2014. https://doi.org/10.47869/tcsj.75.6.6
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21/08/2026
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Kiểu trích dẫn
Nguyen Van, H. (1789405200). A review of damage types, stress concentration and fatigue effects in evaluating the residual load-carrying capacity of defective steel girders in railway bridges. Tạp Chí Khoa Học Giao Thông Vận Tải, 77(7), 929-943. https://doi.org/10.47869/tcsj.77.7.4
