Recommendations for the fatigue design of railway bridges in reinforced and prestressed-concrete

Summary

The aim of this Leaflet is to provide recommendations for fatigue verification of the elements of railway bridges in common cases. It is valid for high-cycle fatigue and applies to new bridges but may also be used for verification of existing bridges, providing the actual state of those bridges is taken into account (steel corrosion, etc.).

The limit-state design concept is used for obtaining adequate durability during the life of the structure, which also guarantees adequate safety. The leaflet defines the actions and the combination of actions applied on the structure. It also determines the internal forces and stresses based on these actions.

Methods and, in some possible cases, simplified methods allow the fatigue verification of the reinforcement steel and concrete for reinforced and prestressed structures. For those methods, the values of the applied factors and definitions are given in tables or formulas, and where necessary, references are specified. Finally, recommendations for reinforcement detailing are listed.