Qinyuan Liu

A systematic study was conducted on the fatigue performance of Q500qENH weathering steel welded joints under low-temperature conditions of −40 °C in this paper. Low-temperature fatigue tests were conducted on V-groove butt joints and cross-shaped welded joints and S-N curves with a 95% reliability level were obtained. A comparative analysis with the Eurocode 3 reveals that low-temperature conditions lead to a regular increase in the design fatigue strength for both types of welded joints. Fracture surface morphology was examined using scanning electron microscopy, and combined with fracture characteristic analysis, the fatigue fracture mechanisms of welded joints under low-temperature conditions were elucidated. Based on linear elastic fracture mechanics theory, a numerical simulation approach was employed to investigate the fatigue crack propagation behavior of welded joints. The results indicate that introducing an elliptical surface initial crack with a semi-major axis length of 0.4 mm in the model effectively predicts the fatigue life and crack growth patterns of both joint types. A parametric analysis was conducted on key influencing factors, including the initial crack size, initial crack location, and initial crack angle. The results reveal that these factors exert varying degrees of influence on the fatigue life and crack propagation paths of welded joints. Among them, the position of the initial crack along the length direction of the fillet weld has the most significant impact on the fatigue life of cross-shaped welded joints.

The growing use of weathering steel in bridge engineering has highlighted the increasing impact of fatigue damage caused by the combined effects of welding residual stress and vehicular loading. This study investigates the fatigue performance of Q500qENH weathering steel bridge decks by proposing a coupled analysis method for residual stress and fatigue crack growth, utilizing collaborative simulations with Abaqus 2023 and Franc3D 7.0. An interaction model integrating welding-induced residual stress fields and dynamic vehicular loads is developed to systematically examine crack propagation patterns in critical regions, including the weld toes of the top plate and the weld seams of the U-ribs. The results indicate that the crack propagation rate at the top plate weld toe exhibits the most rapid progression, reaching the critical dimension (two-thirds of plate thickness) at 6.98 million cycles, establishing this location as the most vulnerable failure point. Residual stresses significantly amplify the stress amplitude under tension–compression cyclic loading, with life degradation effects showing 48.9% greater severity compared to pure tensile stress conditions. Furthermore, parametric analysis demonstrates that increasing the top plate thickness to 16 mm effectively retards crack propagation, while wheel load pressures exceeding 1.0 MPa induce nonlinear acceleration of life deterioration. Based on these findings, engineering countermeasures including welding defect control, optimized top plate thickness (≥16 mm), and wheel load pressure limitation (≤1.0 MPa) are proposed, providing theoretical support for fatigue-resistant design and maintenance of weathering steel bridge decks.