Fatigue Cracks in Steel Bridges

The Fatigue Cracks in Steel Bridges 8 hour PDH online course is a part of the Structural category courses. When cracks are discovered in bridge elements (members or connections) in service, fatigue is usually the cause. Fatigue is the formation of a crack due to cyclic service loads.

This course provides guidelines for repair and retrofit of fatigue cracks in steel bridges and is a guide for engineers to use for design and detailing of repairs and retrofits for fatigue cracks. In addition to designing and executing the repairs and/or retrofits, there are numerous other steps involved in the inspection and assessment of a cracked bridge member. Inspection, fatigue and fracture assessment are briefly discussed.

This course is based on US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration document No. FHWA-IF-13-020 “ Manual for Repair and Retrofit of Fatigue Cracks in Steel Bridges”.

This course is intended for use by civil and structural engineers, design and construction professionals, students and others interested in learning about repair and retrofit of fatigue cracks in steel bridges.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain causes of fatigue and fracture in steel bridges
• Select a repair and retrofit strategy
• Compile a set of actions for fatigue retrofits
• Conduct fatigue assessment based on nominal stress, local stress and fracture mechanics approach
• Given the set of data, select a repair and retrofit method to arrest a propagation of a fatigue crack or upgrade the fatigue resistance to prevent fatigue cracking
• Describe types of and determine if fatigue occurs due to secondary stresses
• Determine causes of and select appropriate repair method for load-induced fatigue cracks