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query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

(OP)
Hello,

I was requested to verify an old rivet steel bridge in my country (Argentina), since our code for railway bridge is extremely old, it has no specifications for fatigue failure.
Due to that, I started looking at US codes. I found AREMA and AASHTO LRFD; I saw that regarding fatigue limit state, they address it similarly (basically AREMA reference AASHTO).
The difference I encounter is that aashto does not address rivet connections, it only mentions high-strength bolted and welded connections. I supposed that is due to the decaying use of them nowadays.
The thing Im not clear how to do is how to verify the rivet joints in the steel railway bridge. From my understanding I have to calculate the stresses in the rivet connection due to live load adjusted for fatigue limit state, and then this stress I need to check it to be lower than the resistance estimated with formulas in AREMA code, basically the same way as I verify the stresses in any other member of the bridge, am I correct?
Thanks!.

RE: query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

The AASHTO Standard Specifications addresses rivets. You can also take a look at Another AASHTO publication called "The Bridge Evaluation Manual", which addresses rivet fatigue.

RE: query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

(OP)
Ok, thanks.

Just wondering if it is ok to use the AREMA as the base code for my case (railway bridge), since in AASHTO it clearly states in the introduction that: "Provisions are not
included for bridges used solely for railway, rail-transit, orpublic utilities"?
And I have version 1996 of AREMA, what are your suggestions?

thanks.

RE: query regarding fatigue in railway steel bridge

It would definitely make sense to use AREMA as the "base" code for any provisions which it covers.

I don't know enough about AREMA to verify what is or isn't addressed in the code, but it is reasonable to reference AASHTO (the bridge design specs, MBE or Standard Specs as applicable) to fill in the gaps. The mechanics of one riveted steel truss bridge are just like another, whether it carries trains, pedestrians or vehicles.

Just be careful that you're either using provisions based on the same basic design philosophy (Allowable stress, Inventory level, Operating level, or LRFD) or that you make an informed adjustment to correlate a provision from one philosophy to another.

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