PSI - Issue 60

Dhanesh N. et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 60 (2024) 456–470 Dhanesh et al. / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

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omitted here for brevity. The minimum distance to be maintained from the shoulders and between the vehicles is also specified for each load combination For the purpose of integrity assessment, only a critical vehicle load combination that causes maximum vertical stress near the dent location is considered. Since there are 3 types of wheel arrangement for Class 70R loading, ten load combinations are considered as per Fig.8 for wheeled vehicles. In addition, three more cases with Class 70R tracked-type vehicles were also considered. A detailed study has been conducted to identify the critical location of each vehicle in a particular combination, which will induce maximum vertical stress near the dent. It is concluded that Case 4 (shown in Fig.8) with an M-type wheel arrangement for IRC Class 70R loading is critical. Fig.9 shows the critical position of each vehicle from the dent location. The movement of traffic on roads causes fluctuating stresses, resulting in possible fatigue damage. For the present study, IRC:6 (2017) recommended fatigue vehicle load for steel and concrete bridges has been considered. In the absence of actual vehicular traffic data, stress induced due to 10×10 6 cycles have been considered since the same is recommended for bridges where generally heavy vehicles ply.

Fig. 8. Vehicular load combinations for 6-lane carriageway (IRC:6 2017)