Abstract: Fatigue damage is one of the leading causes of deterioration in steel road and railway bridges. It is an important consideration during the design of new bridges, as well as in the assessment and inspection of existing structures. Consequently, it is important to identify fatigue-prone details and to understand both the development and underlying causes of the damage.The aim of this report is to improve the understanding of fatigue damage in steel bridges, to investigate the most appropriate methods for fatigue evaluation for certain damages, and give recommendations for the most appropriate repair and retrofitting strategies. The aim is reached by going through the Swedish bridge stock, identifying bridges affected by fatigue, and analysing the causes of damage using various fatigue assessment methods.Most cases of fatigue damage observed in the Swedish bridge stock are related to unforeseen or overlooked structural behaviour. However, poor execution of welded structural details also frequently contributes to the damage. In many instances, the Nominal Stress Method proved unsuitable, significantly overestimating the fatigue life. In contrast, local approaches, such as the Structural Hot-Spot Stress Method, the Effective Notch Stress Method, and a method based on Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics, were usually able to provide accurate predictions of the fatigue life.
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