Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Heavy-Haul Railway T-Beams Based on Miner's Rule and Point Estimation Method_Vol. 4 No. 2 (JES 2026)_Journal of Engineering System (ISSN: 2959-0604)

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Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Heavy-Haul Railway T-Beams Based on Miner's Rule and Point Estimation Method

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jes.202602224

Author(s)

Jianyu Zhang

Affiliation(s)

College of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

Abstract

To clarify the fatigue failure law and reliability level of 32m prestressed concrete simply supported T-beams for heavy-haul railways, address the fatigue damage problem of such bridges caused by long-term alternating train loads, and consider the aggravating effect of prestress attenuation induced by concrete dynamic creep and prestressing tendon relaxation on fatigue risk, relevant research is carried out to provide theoretical support for fatigue safety assessment and operation maintenance in engineering practice. Taking the 32m prestressed concrete simply supported T-beam of heavy-haul railways as the research object, based on the Miner linear cumulative damage theory and material S-N curve, a fatigue limit state function considering prestress attenuation is established, and the corresponding fatigue limit state functions are respectively derived for three typical failure modes, namely concrete compressive failure, tensile cracking and reinforcement fatigue fracture. The influence of prestress attenuation should be included in the equivalent stress amplitude of the lower flange, while the equivalent stress amplitudes of the upper flange and steel bars are temporarily ignored due to their weak correlation with prestress attenuation. The point estimation method is adopted to calculate the time-varying fatigue reliability index of the bridge within its 100-year service life, and the influence of load parameters on the reliability evolution is analyzed. The results show that the fatigue failure probability of prestressed steel bars and upper flange concrete of 32m prestressed concrete simply supported T-beams for heavy-haul railways is low with sufficient safety margin; the initial reliability index of lower flange concrete is 4.885, which drops to 1.970 after 100 years of service, making it the key fatigue control part. The established limit state function and adopted analysis method can effectively quantify the fatigue safety level of such bridges and provide a scientific basis for design, assessment and maintenance.

Keywords

Heavy-Haul Railway; Prestressed Concrete Simply Supported T-Beam; Fatigue Reliability; Prestress Attenuation

References

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