Corrosion Fatigue of Road Bridges: a review

Abstract

In this paper a review is presented about studies involving the fatigue and the corrosion of bridge elements. Reviewed reports include steel structures and steel-reinforced concrete bridges, classified as experimental and theoretical approaches. A special section has been dedicated to particular studies that deny any corrosion ? fatigue relationship, thus involving pure corrosion or pure fatigue approaches. Most of the reports deal with the uncoupled corrosion ? fatigue, in which the corrosion environment and cyclic loading do no coexist during the experiments. Most of the studies consider the exposition to the aggressive environment, followed by the strength or fatigue testing of the corroded material. Results from these approaches reveal that in some cases the strain level is more significant (up to 85 times more), while in others the corrosion level is the most significant factor (up to 11 times more). The studies that considered the coupled corrosion-fatigue phenomenon, whether circumstantially or systematically, reveal the greatest effects (from 20 to 30% reductions in fatigue strength). Furthermore, it is found that a realistic loading time-history has not been applied, regardless of the approach selected. Future works should focus on coupled corrosion ? fatigue phenomenon, proposing standard procedures for structure design. Also, realistic force time-histories should be considered