Research on Propagation Behaviors of Fatigue Cracks of Arc-Cutouts in Diaphragms Based on XFEM
This study investigates the fatigue cracking performance of arc-cutouts in diaphragms of orthotropic steel deck.An existing steel box girder self-anchored suspension bridge,which features a single tower and a single-suspended main span of 350 m,was used as a case.Multi-scale models that simulate the crack propagation behaviors of arc-cutouts of U ribs and diaphragms were built up by the extended finite element method(XFEM).The stress intensity factors of the arc-cutouts under wheel loads were calculated,and the propagation mode and characteristics of fatigue cracks under the interaction of wheel loads and thermal residual stresses were analyzed.It was found that when the wheel loads acted directly above arc-cutouts,the stress intensity factors exhibited a drastic increase,based on this response curve,the axle groups of the fatigue loading models can be identified,but single axles in each axle group can not be extracted.The peak tangential residual tensile stress in the arc-cutouts reached 341.1 MPa,forcing the compressive stress range under the wheel loads to convert to tensile stress range,and the crack propagation direction are basically consistent with the actual crack propagation mode of the real bridge.Due to that the arc-cutouts are in complex three-dimensional shape deformation state,with in-plane deformation in dominance,the arc-cutouts display the mix of Ⅰ,Ⅱ,and Ⅲ types of cracks,with theⅠ-type fracture playing a dominant role.As the cracks propagate,the cracking propagation velocity and stress intensity factor range shows the sign of from increasing to decreasing.
orthotropic steel deckdiaphragmarc-cutoutfatiguecrackstress intensity factorthermal residual stressextended finite element method(XFEM)