Fatigue testing of wires from the Forth Road Bridge, Scotland

摘要

Previous studies have assessed the fracture mechanisms of broken wires removed from the main suspension cables on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland during an intrusive inspection performed in 2012. It was concluded that the fracture process exhibited evidence of several fracture mechanisms, and in some cases a combination of mechanisms was possible. It was shown that possible mechanisms related to crack initiation and propagation, and included pitting corrosion, hydrogen-assisted cracking, branched cracking and corrosion fatigue. Tensile test data and preliminary fatigue data were also discussed. However, the exact effect of fatigue acting on single strands still remains unclear. The current study provides detailed fatigue data and fracture mechanism analysis along with test results from galvanic coating integrity tests and compares the fracture mechanism to those identified in situ.