Stress Distributions in Girder-Arch-Pier Connections of Long-Span Continuous Rigid Frame Arch Railway Bridges

Enhancement of fatigue life of net section in fitted bolt connections

High-strength bolts are widely used in wind turbines and play a significant role in their operation. In this paper, in order to study the ultimate strength of high-strength bolts in the connection between the hub and main shaft in a 2.5 MW wind turbine with pretension effects, two kinds of finite element models are presented: a solid bolt model and a simplified bolt model. Theoretical calculation was used to compare these models with the results of finite element methods. The ultimate strength analysis results showed that the simplified bolt model was the most efficient and useful in terms of computational time and memory usage. Based on this study, the simplified bolt model was used in the fatigue calculation considering multiple random fatigue loads, and the fatigue life of high-strength bolts was determined by combining the S–N curve of the bolt, based on the Palmgren–Miner Linear damage accumulation hypothesis.

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Fatigue Life and Strength Analysis of a Main Shaft-to-Hub Bolted Connection in a Wind Turbine

Steel truss bridges with welded box-section members and bowknot integral joints, Part I: Linear and non-linear analysis

As a result of the structural failure of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis in 2007, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued guidelines for the load rating of gusset plates and recommended that the capacity of these plates on non-redundant steel truss bridges be verified. The purpose of this study is to examine the buckling behaviour of steel gusset plates in greater detail, accounting for parameters that were not explicitly included in the guidelines, such as initial deformations of the gusset plate, stiffness of the framing members, load distribution from the framing members to the plate and load eccentricity. For this purpose, a finite-element model of a gusset plate was developed and verified against experimental measurements. Results show that, for in-plane compressive loads with no moment and no eccentricity, the FHWA guidelines for load rating are conservative and safe for initial out-of-plane deformations up to one plate thickness.

Yong-hui Huang

Papers

Finite element analysis and experimental study on high strength bolted friction grip connections in steel bridges

Model test and numerical analysis of a special joint for a truss bridge