Analysis on fatigue behavior of orthotropic steel deck with pavement in suspension bridge

This study investigated the co-stressing behaviors of the bridge deck pavement and steel deck under vehicle load base on the Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge, take into account the influence of impact coefficient and wheel transverse distribution on local stress of deck detail. In particular, the influence of the elastic modulus, thickness and Poisson ratio of pavement on the stress amplitude of deck detail was discussed. The FEM of steel deck and deck detail were established, and the pavement was considered. The boundary conditions of the FEM of deck detail were interpolated from the FEM of steel deck, and the accurate stress amplitude of deck detail was calculated. The results show that the transverse local effect of deck detail is obviously. The wheel load diffusion and stiffness reinforcement of bridge deck pavement can decrease the local stress of deck detail, and reduce fatigue damage of steel deck effectively. The stress amplitude of deck detail do not reduced obviously with the increase of Poisson ratio. In practical engineering, the fatigue stress can be reduced by increasing the pavement's elastic modulus and thickness for the steel deck with thin top plate.