High strength bolts are widely used in the engineering field due to their good compressive properties. Accurate assessment of the ultimate capacity performance of high strength bolts under combined loading is essential to ensure the safety of steel structures in the connection zone. Existing studies are not sufficiently clear on the economic and condition-specific limits on the effects of various factors on high-strength bolts under complex stress conditions. In response to these problems, the aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of different factors on the load-bearing performance of high-strength bolts on the basis of numerical simulations. The mesoscale critical plastic strain (MCEPS) method was used on the model fracture and the accuracy of the model evaluation was verified. The effects of grade, type, diameter and bolt hole clearance on the ductile fracture behaviour of high-strength bolts were investigated. It was found that fully threaded bolts and through-hole clearances can mainly affect the load-bearing properties of high-strength bolts and increase the bolt's fracture-deformation capacity. The load-bearing performance of high-strength bolts under the influence of different factors was also compared with the Eurocode design (EC3) predictions.

Strengthening fatigue damage of orthotropic steel decks (OSDs) needs to comprehensively consider the strengthening effect and the dead weight introduced during the strengthening process, especially for OSDs in super large-span bridges or old renovated bridges, where the dead weight cannot be significantly increased during repair and maintenance. This paper proposed a new CFRP prestressed reinforcement method, that does not significantly increase dead weight while effectively inhibiting fatigue crack growth. The strengthening effects of various strengthening methods on the fatigue crack propagation of rib to deck joint in OSDs were compared. Besides, the strengthening effects of different crack sizes were also analyzed. The results showed that the proposed method is effective in reducing fatigue damage at the rib to deck joint in OSDs.

Recent experimental studies showed that deep steel I-shaped profiles classified as high ductility class sections in seismic design international codes exhibit low deformation capacity when subjected to cyclic loading. This paper presents an innovative retrofit solution to increase the rotation capacity of beams using bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) patches validated with advanced finite element analysis. This investigation focuses on the flexural cyclic behaviour of I-shaped hot rolled steel deep section used as beams in moment-resisting frames (MRF) retrofitted with CFRP patches on the web. The main goal of this CFRP reinforcement is to increase the rotation capacity of the member without increasing the overstrength in order to avoid compromising the strong column-weak beam condition in MRF. A finite element model that simulates the cyclic plasticity behavior of the steel and the damage in the adhesive layer is developed. The damage is modelled using the cohesive zone modelling (CZM) technique that is able to capture the crack initiation and propagation. Details on the modelling techniques including the mesh sensitivity near the fracture zone are presented. The effectiveness of the retrofit solution depends strongly on the selection of the appropriate adhesive. Different adhesive types are investigated where the CZM parameters are calibrated from high fidelity fracture mechanics tests that are thoroughly validated in the literature. This includes a rigid adhesive commonly found in the construction industry and two tough adhesives used in the automotive industry. The results revealed that the CFRP patch can increase the rotation capacity of a steel member considerably when using tough adhesives.

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) has increasingly attracted attention in the construction sector because of its ability to produce large metallic structural parts in short times. In this paper, Coffin-Manson and Morrow (CMM) equation is employed to compare the fatigue life of WAAM stainless steel with the structural steels S355 and S690. The results showed that the fatigue performance of structural steel is better than the WAAM stainless steel, the fatigue performance vertical to printing direction (WAAM-900) is better than it along the printing direction (WAAM-00). In addition, the fatigue cycle of the transition reversals of structural steel is much less than it of WAAM stainless. With the increasing the fatigue cycle, the maximum density of the strain amplitude ratio is gradually increased to 1.0. The probabilistic parameters of CMM equation were obtained by a stochastic analysis using Latin hypercube sampling strategies. The probabilistic strain-fatigue life behaviour obtained from the constant exponent sampling strategy is higher when compared with the varied exponent sampling strategy for both WAAM stainless and structural steels.

Accurately obtaining the material parameters of the damage model is very important for the ductile fracture simulation of steel structures made of high strength steel (HSS). The combination of micromechanics with the uncoupled phenomenological fracture model can be used to obtain the material parameters of ductile fracture locus only from the uniaxial engineering stress-strain relationship. A micro failure index is generally used to link the material fracture under different multiaxial stress status. It is relatively difficult to describe the irregular micro-void evolution using the microvoid radius, and also difficult to tackle the micro void coalescence of the mesoscale using microvoid volume fraction. The mesoscale critical equivalent plastic strain (MCEPS) is proposed as the failure index at the unit cell level to calibrate the fracture locus of the uncoupled phenomenological model in this paper. The fracture locus of the HSS is calibrated by comparing the FE results with experimental data using the homogenized MCEPS and maximum MCEPS at the microvoid surface, respectively. The identified fracture locus is further validated against five stress status, including butterfly shear specimen, butterfly tension specimen, the tensile specimen with the symmetric round notch, tension specimen with a central hole in the middle, and Sandia fracture challenge specimens in 2014. The comparisons of predictions with the experimental results showed that the proposed MCEPS index can be used to obtain the material parameters of the ductile fracture locus.

The assessment of fatigue crack propagation of steel structures is essential and important especially to improve the application of high strength steel in construction. The load ratio R, reflecting mean stress effects, will be changed with crack extension in the steel structures with complicated geometry. In this paper, the Walker equation is employed to fit the fatigue crack propagation rate of steel grades S355 and S690 based on experimental data in the literature to incorporate the mean stress effects. The material fatigue crack propagation parameters with 95%, 97.7%, and 99% guarantee of Walker equation were obtained by a stochastic analysis using the Monte Carlo method. The fatigue life was firstly predicted by the analytical method and was used as a baseline for numerical fatigue crack propagation simulation. A user-defined fatigue crack propagation subroutine based on the Walker equation was developed using phantom nodes-based extended finite element method (PN-XFEM) and Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) to consider the mean stress effects. The proposed three-dimensional fatigue crack propagation simulation subroutine is successfully validated of both steel grades, S355 and S690.

The development of numerical simulation for Ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and Ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concretes (UHPFRC) is fundamental for the design and construction of related structures. The simplified engineering stress-strain relationship and the input values are necessary in the finite element modeling. Four-linear curves and modified Kent–Park model were proposed to describe the engineering tensile and compressive stress-strain relationship, respectively. An attempt was made to simulate the fracture of UHPC and UHPFRC using concrete damaged plasticity model and element deletion strategies. The predicted tensile and compressive behaviors of UHPC and UHPFRC were successfully validated by the test results in the literature. For a better understanding of the mechanical behavior of UHPC and UHPFRC exposed to biaxial loadings, mixed-mode crack propagation simulation on the double-notched specimens exposed to combined shear-tensile and shear-compressive forces was discussed.

The fatigue resistance of welded connections made of high strength steel (HSS) is one of the most important topics for the application of HSS in the construction sector. One of the most challenging issues is how to predict the fatigue life of welded structures with complex geometry based on the test results from relatively simple coupon specimens. However, there are generally pre-existing residual stresses in the welded coupon specimens during fatigue tests, and these residual stresses vary greatly in welded structures with complex geometry. This increases the difficulty in predicting the fatigue behaviour of welded structures based on results at coupon scale. Hence, it is important to establish a relationship between the residual stress independent material characteristics and fatigue life. The fatigue behaviour of complex welded structures can be predicted by this residual stress independent material characteristics calibrated at the coupon level and simulated local residual stress distribution. In this paper, the residual stress-free characteristics, hardness, is employed to predict the fatigue life of butt-welded joints. Besides, the residual stress of V-shaped butt welds on a plate made of high strength steels are analysed by modelling of the welding process based on subsequent thermal analysis and mechanical stress analysis by implementing kill/birth strategies. The results show that it contributes to a better prediction compared with experimental results after considering the residual stress effects.

The ductile performance of high strength steel (HSS) from different steel grades, producers, manufacturing processes varies a lot. It is also difficult to conduct all kinds of reliable experiments to generate different stress status through different initial specimen geometries or by applying different load combinations in the civil engineering sector. One of the common issues for HSS structures is to identify the parameters of the ductile fracture model conveniently from the uniaxial stress–strain relationship obtained from common coupon specimens. An attempt is made in this paper to use the proposed mesoscale critical equivalent plastic strain (MCEPS) to calibrate the fracture locus of the uncoupled phenomenological model based only on the engineering stress–strain relationship. The proposed method is successfully validated by the Sandia fracture challenge in 2014.

In North America and Europe, there is a significant number of centenary metallic bridges that require maintenance and strengthening operations. These structures need to be adapted to increasing traffic intensities, and their structural integrity should be constantly evaluated. Fatigue damages were not considered in the original design of old metallic bridges, and riveted connections are one of the most frequent sources of fatigue damages on these structures. This paper intends to be a contribution for the reliable assessment of the fatigue behavior of riveted connections by proposing S-N curves for these structural details. Experimental fatigue data is analyzed from multiple bridges across Europe, and different statistical methods were implemented. A normal distribution function was implemented following the ISO 12107 standard, and the results were compared with the implementation of the two-parameter Weibull distribution function. Different estimation methodologies were implemented to determine the parameters of the Weibull distribution. S-N curves obtained by the statistical analysis were then compared with design recommendations from North American and European standards.

Owing to the superior mechanical performance and material efficiency, the combination of prestressed concrete (PC) slabs and corrugated steel webs (CSW) as PC girder with CSWs (PCGCSW) is extensively applied to railway and highway bridges. To overcome the shortcomings of traditional balanced cantilever construction (TBCC) of PCGCSW, reduce environmental impact, and promote sustainable construction, a novel asynchronous-pouring-construction (APC) technology is introduced in this paper. This improved method makes full use of the excellent shear capacity of the corrugated steel webs (CSWs) to support the hanging basket, increases the construction platforms to accelerate the construction speed. Based on a practical project of a long-span composite box girder bridge with CSWs in China, the construction process of the APC method is systematically introduced, and the structural safety and environmental sustainability of such bridge using APC technology are evaluated and compared with that using TBCC. The comparison results indicate that APC method can reduce the compressive stress of top concrete slab, but slightly increase the shear stress and deflection during the cantilever construction stage because the hanging basket is directly supported by CSWs. Besides, the weight of the improved handing basket in APC technology is reduced up to half in comparison that in TBCC. Accordingly, the APC technology saves a lot of energy consumption, reduces huge CO₂ emissions for construction equipment, and shorts construction period. Therefore, the utilization of APRC technology can ensure the bridge's safety and reliability, effectively accelerate construction speed, reduce the construction load, decrease the environmental pollution, and save the engineering cost, which can be regarded as a sustainable and environmental-friendly construction method for composite bridges with CSWs.

Design optimization of fiber-reinforced polymeric (FRP) composite products is essential to facilitate their applications in engineering structures. For bridge structures, the main design optimization goals are the reduction of FRP material consumption and the structure weight, which aim to reduce the initial construction cost and achieve a longer bridge span. Compared with conventional steel–concrete composite bridges, FRP-steel composite bridges possess more design variables and more complex design process, which necessitate the simplified optimization models. This paper aims to propose a two-scale design optimation method for FRP bridge deck on the steel girder. The macro behavior of the pultruded FRP composite bridge deck is analyzed. Regarding the micro level, the equivalent properties of pultruded GFRP lamination are calculated by combining micromechanics and classical lamination theory (CLT). The above-mentioned macro pultruded GFRP bridge level and the micro fiber/resin level were bridged based on the assumption that the micro-component effective homogenized strain equals to the corresponding macro strain. The two-scale lamination optimization of pultruded GFRP bridge deck is finally achieved by finding optimized two-scale design variables that can achieve the minimum bridge weight or the lowest initial construction cost with all listed constraint requirements satisfied. A pultruded FRP deck supported on equally-spaced steel girders was selected as a case study to show how to obtain the optimized two-scale parameters by using this proposed optimization method. The optimized results of the top flange thickness, t_u, the bottom flange thickness, t_l, the web height, h_w, and the web thickness per meter, t_w, are 46.02 mm, 45.86 mm, 300.0 mm and 37.42 mm, respectively. Results also showed that the optimized ratio of the 0°-lamina, 45°-lamina, and the 90°-lamina are77.9%, 17.1%, 5.0%. The optimized fiber volume fraction is 65.2%.

The maintenance and safety of ancient bridges is a major concern of governmental authorities. In particular, the safety of old riveted bridges fabricated and placed into service at the end of the 19th century deserves particular attention. These structures are susceptible to exhibit high fatigue damage levels due to their long operational period with increasing traffic intensity associated to an original design not covering the fatigue phenomenon. This paper reviews recent fatigue behaviour investigations on single and double shear riveted joints performed by Universities of Porto (Portugal), Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), and Wrocław (Poland), in particular concerning the fatigue characterization of riveted joints extracted from representative Portuguese riveted bridges, namely the Eiffel, Luiz I, Fão, Pinhão and Trezói bridges. In order to overcome the influence of scatter and establish a reliable assessment for the obtained experimental data, two statistical approaches were used: implement linearized boundaries following the recommendation in ASTM E739 standard and defining probabilistic S–N fields using the Castillo & Fernández-Canteli model. This statistical analysis allows to propose design S–N curves for single and double riveted joints and evaluate the applicability (safety) of using the design curves suggested in Eurocode 3 as well as design curves proposed by Taras and Greiner.