National Transport Library Research Database

Konkurrenskraftiga stål- och samverkansbroar (Competitive steel & composite bridge - fatigue life enhancement through post-weld treatment)

Sponsors, duration, budget: Trafikverket ; 2015-07-01 -- 2017-06-30 Registration number:
  • Trafikverket 2015/86329
Subject(s): Online resources: Abstract: The bridge construction industry stands today before many new challenges that need to be tackled in order to cope with the increasing societal demands on sustainability, high productivity and more optimized utilization of natural resources. In that respect, rationalization and cost-efficiency should be promoted in many areas including material utilization, production costs as well as the whole life-cycle cost of bridges. Focusing on the segment of steel and composite bridges, there is a great need today for developing and implementing new technologies and innovations towards more rational design both with regards to material consumption and production costs. The main aim of this proposal is to introduce and create foundation for the application of High Frequency Mechanical Impact (HFMI) treatment in the steel bridge industry as a method of optimizing the cost-performance of these structures, and minimizing material use towards an enhanced cost-efficiency. The work in the project is a gap-closing, application-oriented research, which focuses on technology transfer from other sectors of the steel industry to the field of steel and composite bridges. A study conducted by the project team on three case-study bridges show that up to 20% saving of the total amount of steel used in steel bridges is possible to achieve through post-weld treatment. The technique needs to be applied only on few (fatigue designing) details in the bridge, for negligible cost. In addition, the enhancement in fatigue resistance achieved by post-weld treatment allows for the use of higher grade steel types, which today are not considered relevant for bridges. This in turn give less material use, reduced painting area and therefore more sustainable bridges with competitive total life-cycle cost.
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