PSI - Issue 57

Mathias Euler et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 57 (2024) 298–306 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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The effective loaded length

eff,fat .of the rail welds is determined by the new calculation model. As there is no

closed solution of eff,fat , Table 1 provides this length for important combinations of hot-rolled I sections and flat material. These tables are also part of the standard draft prEN 1993-6 (2022). The length eff,fat .is affected by the weld size, the geometry of rail and crane runway beam, the welding process and the static system. The background of the tables is explained in (Euler & Kuhlmann, 2018). Tab. 1. Effective loaded length ℓ eff,fat of continuous rail welds for selected hot-rolled I-section series

The improved detail categories of the partial penetration welded flange-to-web connections and the new detail category of the continuous rail welds, that are derived from the tests, are summarized by Table 2. The table also contains a safe-sided improvement for the full penetration welded flange-to-web connections. Such connections have not been directly tested. The local shear stresses in the rail welds can be assumed by  0.2 min ¯  ⊥ as for the flange-to-web connection according to EN 1993-6 (2006). In contrast to the flange-to-web connection, the local shear stresses are usually dominant. A characteristic reference value   C = 80 N/mm² is recommended for the fatigue verification of the rail welds. In view of the possibility for failure detection, the resulting low consquences of failure and the minor importance of the flat rails for the load-bearing capacity of the crane runway beams, a partial factor  Mf = 1.0 seems to be acceptable for the fatigue verification.