Advanced Steel Construction

Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 143-152 (2026)


 STUDY ON THE FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF CROSS-WELDED STEEL

FABRIC FOR SIMPLE-SUPPORTED BOX GIRDER OF HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY

 

Chuang Du *, Qi-Hui Gao, Jin-Li Qiao, Xiao-Tong Liu and Didier Nshimiyimana

School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China

*(Corresponding author: E-mail:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Received: 26 February 2025; Revised: 26 June 2025; Accepted: 26 June 2025

 

DOI:10.18057/IJASC.2026.22.2.2

 

View Article   Export Citation: Plain Text | RIS | Endnote

ABSTRACT

By utilizing intelligent construction technology, the production process of the steel fabric for simply - supported box girders in high - speed railways has been upgraded from manual binding to automatic welding. However, welding can affect the fatigue performance of steel bars. To evaluate this impact, fatigue tests were conducted on five groups of specimens as well as the base metal. The test results indicate that fatigue failure occurred at the welded spot, presenting as a brittle failure. As the stress amplitude decreases, the fatigue life of the specimens increases significantly. The fatigue life is more sensitive to stress changes at low - stress amplitudes. When the stress ratio increases, both the fatigue life and the stress amplitude decrease, and the sensitivity of the fatigue life and stress amplitude to the stress ratio gradually increases. On the overall fatigue S - N curve, the stress amplitude corresponding to a fatigue life of 2 million cycles for the welded steel bar was approximately 128.72 MPa. Compared with the base metal, the stress amplitude decreased by 45.75%. The stress amplitude under ultra - high cyclic loading was predicted. The coupling relationship of stress-amplitude stress-ratio fatigue-cycle was fitted and analyzed, relevant equations were derived, and a safety line for the values of stress amplitude and stress ratio was determined.

 

KEYWORDS

Cross-welded steel bars, Fatigue test, S-N curve, Stress ratio, Fatigue performance


REFERENCES

[1] H.-B. Liu, S. Li, L. Xu, and Z.-B. Yu, Identification of wheel-rail forces on high-speed railways based on physical model and hybrid recursive neural networks, Engineering Structures, vol. 338, p. 120547, 2025.

[2] J.-J. Deng, H.-Y. Zhai, and Z.-J. Wang, Vulnerability evaluation of high-speed railway network under wind disasters, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, vol. 264(PA), p.111323, 2025.

[3] C.-F. Lu, J.-F. Liu, Y.-H. Liu, and Y.-M. Liu, Intelligent construction technology of railway engineering in China, Frontiers of Engineering Management, vol.6,no.02,pp.503-516, 2019.

[4] T. Skriko, K. Lipiäinen, A. Ahola, H. Mettänen,and T.  Björk, Fatigue strength of longitudinal load-carrying welds in beams made of ultra-high-strength steel, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, vol.179, p.106563, 2021.

[5] Z.-Y. Jie, W.-J. Wang, P. Zhuge, Y.-D. Li, and X. Wei, Fatigue properties of inclined cruciform welded joints with artificial pits, Advanced Steel Construction,vol.17,no.01,pp. 20-27, 2021.

[6] A. Aloisio, D. Lavorato, J.-Q. Xue, J.-J. Wu, A. Rasulo, B. Briseghella, and C. Nuti, The role of overstrength in welded joints for rebar substitution in damaged RC columns, Construction and Building Materials, vol.409, p.133952, 2023.

[7] Y.-Z. Jiang, Z.-Y. Xin, D.-Y. Wang, and T. Ou, Structural fatigue performance of L-shaped support in continuous welded stainless steel roof system, Journal of Constructional Steel Research, vol.214, p.108507,2024.

[8] Q. Cheng, Z.-A. Yao, H.-Y. Chen, D.-W. Liu, M.-Y. Lin, Q. Zhao, and B. Zhang, Study on corrosion fatigue degradation performance of welded top plate-U rib of cross-sea steel box girder, Buildings, vol.13, p.7, 2023.

[9] M. Gu, L.-W. Tong, X.-L. Zhao, and Y.-F. Zhang, Numerical analysis of fatigue behavior of welded cfchs T-joint, Advanced steel construction, vol. 10, no. 04, pp. 476-496, 2014.

[10] H. Miao, T.Yamashita,K. Ushioda, S. Tsutsumi,Y. Morisada,and H. Fujii,Improving fatigue property of linear friction welded cruciform joints of low carbon steel, Journal of Manufacturing Processes,vol.338,pp. 55-64, 2025.

[11] H.-L. Luo, K.-C. Qu, C. Yu, Q.-H. Kan, and G.-Z. Kang, Experimental study on multiaxial ratchetting-fatigue interaction of SUS301L stainless steel tubular welded joint, International Journal of Fatigue, vol. 186, p.108411, 2024.

[12] W.- Z. Wang, Z.-Y. Jie, G. -J. Yu, L.- F. Xiao, and Y. -Z. Fan, Unified fatigue life calculation of Q460c steel fillet weld cruciform joints considering fatigue crack initiation and propagation, Advanced Steel Construction, vol. 20, no. 03, pp. 222-231, 2024.

[13] Y.-F., Wang, W. Wang, and Y.-Q. Liu, Experimental research on the fatigue performance of lapped welded splices of high strength reinforcing bars, Journal of Railway Engineering Society, vol. 38, no. 03, pp. 113-117, 2021.

[14] X.-W. Sheng, W.-Q. Zheng, and J.-Z. Lei, Experimental study on fatigue behavior of high strength steel bars connected by flash butt welding in railway engineering, China Civil Engineering Journal, vol. 50,no. 12, pp. 56-61, 2017.

[15] W.-Q. Zheng, and X.-W. Sheng, Welding properties for HRB500 high-strength steel bars connected by flash butt welding, China Civil Engineering Journal, vol. 52, no. 07, pp. 22-29, 2019.

[16] TB 10092-2017, Code for the Design of Concrete Structures for Railway Bridges and Culverts, China Railway Publishing House Co., Ltd. 2017.

[17] GB 50010-2010, Code for Design of Concrete Structures, China Construction Industry Press, 2016.

[18] M. Schwarzkopf, Fatigue design of tack-welded mesh reinforcing bars, Structural Engineering International, vol. 5, no. 02, pp. 102-106, 1995.

[19] W.-L. Gu, and Z.-L. Lin, Experimental research on fatigue properties of welded fabric, Building Structure,  vol. 42, no. 01, pp. 105-107+90, 2012.

[20] W.-L. Gu, and A.-P. Zhu, Experimental Research on Fatigue S-N Curves of Welded Fabric, Construction Technology, vol. 46, no. 04, pp. 71-74+103, 2017.

[21] C. Li, G.-S. Liu, and S.-Y. Wang, Experimental Study on Fatigue Properties of Welded Steel Fabric, Bulletin of Science and Technology, vol. 38, no. 08, pp. 79-84,2022.

[22] JGJ 114-2014, Technical specification for concrete structures reinforced with welded steel fabric, China Construction Industry Press, 2014.

[23] GB/T 28900-2022, Test methods of steel for reinforcement of concrete, State Administration for Market Regulation, 2022.

[24] H. Esmaeili,M. Avateffazeli,M. Haghshenas,and  R. Rizvi. A Hybrid Framework for Characterizing and Benchmarking Fatigue SN Curves in Aluminum Alloys by Integrating Empirical and DataDriven Approaches,Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures, vol. 48,no. 1, pp. 44-59, 2024.

[25] M. Agrawal,M. Gupta,R T D. Prabhakaran, and P. Mahajan, A comparative study of static and fatigue performance of glass and basalt fiber reinforced epoxy composites, Polymer Composites, vol. 45,no. 4, pp. 3551-3565, 2024.

[26] BS-EN 1993-1-9:2005, Design of steel structures Part 1-9: Fatigue,U.K.: GEN, 2005.

[27] W.-Z. Yao, X.-W. Li, P.-S. Dong, Fatigue-resistant design theory and method for welded structures, China Machine Press, 2017.

[28] JGJ/T 27-2014, Standard for test methods of welded joint of reinforcing steel bars, China Construction Industry Press,2014.

[29] CEN. EN 1992-1-1. Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structuresPart 11: general rules and rules for buildings, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, 2004.

[30] DIN 1045-1, Tragwerke aus Beton, Stahlbeton und Spannbeton Teil 1: Bemessung und Konstruktion,  2008.

[31] J.-X. Wen, H.-J. Li, F.-L. Huang, Z.-Q. Yang, Z. Wang, and Z.-L. Yi, Fatigue Performance Test System for Ballastless Track Concrete of High Speed Railway, Railway Engineering, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 7-11, 2022.

[32] J.-W. Zhang, C.-B. Cai, S.-Y. Zhu, M.-Z. Wang, Q.-L. He, S.-F. Yang, and W.-M. Zhai, Experimental investigation on dynamic performance evolution of double-block ballastless track under high-cycle train loads, Engineering Structures, vol. 254, p. 113872, 2022.