Fatigue of Corrugated-Web Plate Girders: Experimental Study

As a result of stress concentration, welding transverse stiffeners in flat-web plate girders reduces their fatigue life. The focus of this study is to investigate the behavior of trapezoidally corrugated-web plate girders (CWPG) under fatigue loading by means of evaluating their fatigue life under different stress ranges. The test girders failed by fatigue cracks, which started at the weld between the web and the tension flange near the web fold line. A relationship between the stress range “ Fr ” and the number of cycles to failure “ N ” was developed for CWPG. Fatigue lives of the tested CWPG were compared to other girder types and the test results were related to the current AASHTO specifications.