Fatigue Assessment of Steel Bridge Superstructures, the Netherlands

RWS has appointed the Managing Contractor (MC) in 2009 to manage the renovation of eight steel highway bridges in the Netherlands. Part of that project exists of fatigue assessment of the existing structures and strengthening works. The MC has used a fatigue analysis tool to assess the fatigue damage in the superstructures. The tool is used to automate the analysis process. Assessing the bridges with the detailed load model results in less fatigue damage compared to standard Eurocode fatigue load models and limits the magnitude of repairs on the bridges, but also results in large amounts of data to be processed. The automated fatigue analysis tool allows the structural engineer to conduct an extensive detailed fatigue analysis in a few hours time, and delivers ample results to give insight in the fatigue behaviour of the bridges.