Ermittlung von Inspektionsintervallen für Rissprüfungen an historischen genieteten Eisenbahnbrücken auf Basis der Bruchmechanik - Teil 1

An assessment of the remaining fatigue life based on SN-curves often leads to conservative and imponderable results, because of the high effect of the fatigue damage in the past with minor knowledge of the associated service trains. For a representative single span truss bridge an alternative assessment based on fracture mechanics was done, with calibrated models based on fatigue tests on dismounted historical girders and stress spectra based on numerical simulations of the crossing of the individual service trains. This is the content of part 1 of the paper. Based on the assumption of a starting crack length detectable at regular inspections, remaining fatigue life are calculated for the individual bridge members, leading to a proposal of accurate time periods for inspection. This is the content of part 2 of the paper.