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Federal Highway Administration
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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| REPORT |
| This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
 |
| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-020 Date: February 2017 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-020 Date: February 2017 |
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This report documents fatigue testing results of full-scale geometries of various orthotropic rib-to-deck weld geometries. The Federal Highway Administration undertook this study in order to assess these weld geometries and potentially provide performance data that might alleviate restrictive fabrication specifications. Currently, these restrictions are reducing the competitiveness of orthotropic steel decks versus other alternatives. Parameters explored in the research were welding process, weld penetration, and fit-up tolerance. The results showed that fatigue resistance could be assured in design through simple fabrication rules that define the weld leg size and target penetration and, if implemented, should make rib-to-deck welds more fabricator-friendly to produce while still maintaining reliability against fatigue failures.
This report will benefit those interested in the design and fabrication of steel orthotropic bridge decks, including State transportation departments, steel bridge fabricators, design consultants, and researchers.
Cheryl Richter
Director, Office of Infrastructure
Research and Development
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
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Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-17-020 |
2. Government Accession No. | 3 Recipient's Catalog No. | ||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Optimization of Rib-to-Deck Welds for Steel Orthotropic Bridge Decks |
5. Report Date February 2017 |
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| 6. Performing Organization Code | ||||
| 7. Author(s)
J.M. Ocel, B. Cross, W.J. Wright, and H. Yuan |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
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9. Performing Organization Name and Address Office of Infrastructure Research & Development Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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| 11. Contract or Grant No.
DTFH61-04-C-00029 including Task Orders 28–30 DTFH061-10-D-00017 including Task Order 2 |
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| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Infrastructure Research and Development |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Final Report, October 2009–July 2012 |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code HRDI-40 |
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| 15. Supplementary Notes
Justin Ocel (HRDI-40) conducted the testing at Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, was the technical monitor of all task orders, and prepared the final report with assistance from onsite contractor staff under both contracts. The Contracting Officer’s Representative for both contracts was Fassil Beshah (HRDI-40). |
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| 16. Abstract
Orthotropic steel decks have been widely used over the decades, especially on long-span bridges as a result of their lightweight and fast construction. However, fatigue cracking problems have been observed in the welds in many cases because of wheel loads. The rib-to-deck welds need special care because they are directly located under wheel loads and are subjected to both local and global stress effects. When this research began, the current practice in the United States was to use a one-sided partial penetration weld joining the rib and deck plates together with a minimum of 80-percent penetration requirement. Melt-through and blow were also considered rejectable defects. Restrictive requirements such as these result in a very narrowly defined welding procedure with little tolerance for variation. In practice, this leads to numerous weld repairs and rigorous inspection requirements that drive up the cost of orthotropic deck fabrication. This study shows that the 80-percent penetration requirement can be significantly relaxed because fatigue performance was largely dictated by weld size and not penetration. A simple correlation is provided between weld size and penetration to guarantee American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials category C fatigue performance that should provide for more relaxed fabrication specifications. Finally, specimens fabricated with purposeful fit-up gaps were found to close provided the original gap did not exceed 0.020 inch. |
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| 17. Key Words
Local structural stress, steel bridge, orthotropic steel deck, fatigue testing |
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. |
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19. Security Classification Unclassified |
20. Security Classification Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 121 |
22. Price N/A |
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| Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
SI* (Modern Metric) Conversion Factors
| AASHTO | American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials | |
| CAFT | constant amplitude fatigue threshold | |
| GMAW | gas metal arc welding | |
| HLAW | hybrid laser arc welding | |
| ID | identification | |
| IIW | International Institute of Welding | |
| LRFD | load-and-resistance factor design | |
| LSS | local structural stress | |
| MSE | mean square error | |
| SAW | submerged arc welding | |
| TFHRC | Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center | |
| VT | Virginia Tech |
