THE FATIGUE BEHAVIOUR OF THE BREATHING WEBS OF STEEL BRIDGE GIRDERS

The limit state of thin‐walled steel girders subjected to many times repeated loading is to a great extent affected by the cumulative damage process occurring in the girder webs “breathing” under the repeated loads. Based on experimental results obtained by the authors at the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Prague, (i) various approaches to the definition of the fatigue limit state of the above girders are discussed, (ii) a number of potential design procedures suggested by other researchers validated and (iii) a set of S‐N curves, established by the writers so as to serve as a reliable tool for the fatigue analysis of thin‐walled girders with “breathing” webs, presented.