This thesis treats the fatigue assessment process of steel bridges. The purpose is to identify areas with potential of enhancement with an overall aim of attaining a longer service life. The aging bridge stock in Sweden and in many other developed countries is an impending economical burden. Many bridges have reached their expected service life and increased axle loads, speeds, and traffic intensity further accelerate the deterioration. An immediate replacement of all our bridges approaching their expected service life will not be possible. For economical and environmental reasons, effort should be put on extending the theoretically safe service life as far as possible.  Fatigue is one of the major reasons limiting the service life of steel bridges .A specific example is the Söderström Bridge in Stockholm, Sweden. Fatigue cracks have been found in the webs of the main beams and theoretical assessments have shown an exhausted service life. As a mean to reduce the uncertainties in the theoretical assessments a monitoring campaign was started in 2008 and continued in periods until 2011. The first continuous period of 43 days of measurements in 2008 forms the experimental foundation for this thesis. A fatigue life prediction involves (i) an estimation of the load effect, (ii) an estimation of the resistance, and (iii) the selection of a prediction model. This thesis treats in some sense all three of them. Considering part (i), the load effect, a theoretical study on the influence of dynamics has been performed. The quasi static approach suggested in the standards does not necessarily reflect the true dynamic behavior of the structure. Performing a dynamic moving load analysis gives for all cases studied a more favorable fatigue life. A further enhancement of the assessment is to perform in situ measurements. The uncertainties related to dynamics, loads, and structural behavior are thereby captured in the response. Routines for processing the measured response and performing life predictions are treated, moreover the quality of the measured response. The resistance, part (ii), in form of the fatigue endurance has a funda- mental influence on the fatigue life. As an attempt to reach a more adequate fatigue endurance a refined assessment of a typical joint is performed using linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM). A descriptive detail category is suggested which renders a somewhat more favorable resistance. Part (iii), the prediction model, is treated considering the safety format. A reliability-based model is suggested which enables a consideration of the uncertainties in each stochastic variable. Thereby, all aforementioned parts and uncertainties can be combined within the same prediction. The reliability-based model is used for a code calibration of partial safety factors to be used in semi-probabilistic assessments according to the standards. The implementation of the suggested procedures is shown with a numerical example. The outcome should not be generalized but the example clearly shows an increase in fatigue life with the proposed enhancements of the assessment procedure. / <p>QC 20130917</p>

Regeringen har på förslag att införa en ny bärighetsklass för det svenska vägnätet. Den föreslagna bärighetsklassen får beteckningen BK4 och innebär att maximal bruttovikt för lastbilar ökas från nuvarande 64 ton till 74 ton. Målet för arbetet var att utröna påverkan på beräkningar och resultat för broar av denna ökning, med hänsyn till befintliga broars bärförmåga – specifikt med avseende på broar vars spann är långa nog att rymma minst ett helt lastbilsekipage. I samband med höjningen av maximal bruttovikt kommer fordonsutseendet för lastbilar att förändras. En bärighetsberäkning utfördes för balkbron 15-910-2, som har spann på 25-28 m. Beräkningen utfördes i enlighet med svenskt regelverk för bärighetsberäkning, TDOK 2013:0267, och med hjälp av FE-analys i programmet Brigade/Standard. I arbetet har specifik FEM-teori använts för att bestämma var kritiska snitt uppstår i FE-modellen och i vissa fall har justering av utdata gjorts med hjälp av lastfördelningsbredder. Rapporten är tänkt att kunna användas som en mall för hur en bärighetsberäkning kan utföras. Mallen för bärighetsberäkningen kan användas som stöd för beräkningar för andra broar där framförallt tankesätt och beräkningsgång kommer att vara liknande. På grund av förändringen av fordonsutseende i samband med bruttoviktshöjningen har en FEanalys utförts för att kontrollera skillnader på lastpåverkan mellan dagens fordonsutseende för BK1 och exempel på framtida utseende för BK4. Jämförelsen visar att påverkan kan variera något mellan olika fordonskonfigurationer men konsekvent ökar avsevärt då bruttovikten höjs. Resultatet av bärighetsberäkningen gav en klassning A/B = 176/284 kN för bro 15-910-2, vilket ligger över kravet för införandet utav BK4 med gränsvärden på A/B = 120/210 kN. Skillnaden i resultat för BK1 och BK4 visar på att beräkningar och resultat för en lång balkbro i brottsgränstillstånd inte påverkas avsevärt av höjningen av maxvikten för lastbilar. Innebörden av detta bör då vara att en bro som är klassad för BK1 enligt TDOK 2013:0267 med en klassning som är högre än kravet för BK4 kan uppgraderas utan ytterligare kontroll. Dock bör ytterligare studier utföras för fler broar av samma typ för att kunna styrka detta samband. I samband med att bärighetsberäkningen utförs tas ett så kallat k-värde fram, som sedan används för att proportionera upp, eller ned, A/B-värdena från de gränsvärden som gäller för given bärighetsklass. Då bärighetsberäkning utfördes för BK1 och BK4 gav resulterande bärförmåga för bron endast en två-procentig skillnad, men k-värdet blir betydligt mindre för BK4 jämfört med BK1. Ett lägre k-värde innebär en högre utnyttjandegrad och därmed snabbare utmattning och högre slitage på bron. Effekten av dessa skillnader bör undersökas i ett senare arbete. / The Swedish government has proposed a new load carrying capacity class for the Swedish road network. The proposed capacity class is labeled BK4 and will increase the maximum weight for road vehicles from the current 64 t to 74 t. The goal for this thesis was to investigate the impact of this increase on the capacity calculations and results for bridges, regarding existing bridges’ load carrying capacity – specifically with respect to beam bridges with spans long enough to contain an entire truck. Coincidental to the increase of maximum weight the vehicle configuration of trucks will change. A capacity calculation was performed on the beam bridge 15-910-2, with span lengths of 25-28 m. The calculation was performed according to Swedish regulations for capacity calculation and with an FE-analysis in the software Brigade/Standard. In this thesis, specific FEM theory has been used to determine where critical sections occur in the FE-model and in some cases output adjustments have been made using load distribution widths. This report is meant to be able to be used as a template for how a capacity calculation can be performed. The capacity calculation template can be used as calculation support and process description for the calculation of other bridges. Due to the change in vehicle appearance in the context of the gross weight increase, a FE-analysis has been conducted to measure the differences in impact on the structure between today’s vehicle appearance for BK1 and the examples of future appearance for BK4. The comparison shows that the impact can vary slightly between different vehicle configurations but the impact consistently increases significantly with the increase in gross weight. The result of the capacity calculation gave a classification rating of A/B = 176/284 kN for bridge 15-910-2, which is above the requirement for the introduction of BK4 which has a required rating of A/B = 120/210 kN. The marginal result difference between BK1 and BK4 shows a plausibility that the calculations and results for long beam bridges in the ultimate limit state are unaffected by the increase of maximum weight for road vehicles. Thus the implication of this should be that a bridge with a BK1 load carrying capacity classification score that is higher than the demanded score according to BK4 can be upgraded without further control, if the prior capacity classification calculation was done according to TDOK 2013:0267. However further studies should be carried out for other beam bridges in order to increase this plausibility. When performing the load calculation, a so-called k-value is generated, which is then used to proportionate the A/B limit values for the given capacity class to reach a final classification rating. When capacity calculation was performed using input values for BK1 and BK4 respectively, the resulting load carrying capacity showed a two percent difference between BK1 and BK4, but the kvalue for the BK4 class was significantly lower than for BK1. A lower k-value means a higher utilization rate and hence faster fatigue and higher wear on the bridge. The effect of these differences should be investigated further in later studies.