Fatigue of Fabricated Steel-Sheet Details-Phase II

This paper (Phase II), and previous publications (Phase I), describe the findings of a fatigue study on fabricated steel-sheet details. Backed up by 163 tests reported so far, the results indicate that the stress-range fatigue-design concept incorporated in current bridge and crane-girder design specifications provides a very quick, simple, and reliable method for the fatigue analysis of fabricated steel-sheet details, and safely prevents fatigue failure in ground-transportation and agricultural equipment. The concept is shown to be applicable to stress ratios of R > O through −1, and may be extended to very high nominal stress ranges (140 ksi, or 965 MPa) as long as the nominal tension or compression yield strength is not exceeded.