Fatigue Life Estimation of an Integral RC Bridge Subjected to Transient Loading Using Ansys

Integral bridges are becoming popular day by day, as they are easy to construct and require lesser maintenance efforts due to absence of bearings. There is an increasing tendency to construct long-span bridges. However, due to movement restraints, fatigue stresses build-up that leads to a reduction in the useful life. In this study, an effort has been made to estimate the fatigue life of an integral bridge subjected to transient loads. In this paper, the results of transient analysis of an integral bridge of total length 156 m having five continuous spans with a maximum span of 40 m has been done using ANSYS. The roles of deformation and von-Misses stress that occur in the bridge have been found to influence fatigue life. Further, midpoint deflection in the longest span, its variation with loading history, and its influence on fatigue life have been analyzed and found to match satisfactorily with standard results, and the same process is applied on various length of a longer span.