| Abstract: | The fatigue life of critical members, such as hangers, floor-beams and stringers in a single track, open deck railroad truss bridge, was investigated for various unit freight trains, operating at different speeds. A partial bridge model was used, along with a three-car train, to determine the stress cycles. For determining the fatigue lives of critical members, four fully-loaded trains per day were assumed to pass over the bridge. Each train was assumed to consist of one hundred 70-ton cars or seventy 100-ton cars. The 100-ton freight cars cause large stress ranges, and consequently shorter fatigue lives than the 70-ton freight cars. For the hundred-car train, with 70-ton and 100-ton cars mixed in various proportions, the fatigue lives became shorter as the percentage of 100-ton cars in the consist was increased. The impact percentages were also studied. |
