Fatigue Assessment on Fork End Connectors in a Cable Structure

In this paper the fatigue assessment procedure for the fork end connectors’ system of a steel arch bridge located in Padua (Italy) is presented. A deep checking of such components through ultrasonic tests revealed the presence of flaws on 102 forks (corresponding to 95% of the whole number).

Owner of the bridge asked for a deep review of the project with particular reference to fatigue assessment of such components keeping into account detected defectiveness. The adopted procedure was a semi-probabilistic one, as suggested by BS 7910:2005, characterized by a wide number of experimental tests with the aim of reducinguncertainties level during assessment procedure and supporting the designer for evaluating lifetime period of such component.