Study on fatigue properties and life prediction of corroded steel strands
Weijie Fan, Y.C. Zhou, Pengju Cheng, Peng Wei
Abstract
The fatigue life of steel strands in coastal environments is decreased due to corrosion. This study uses corrosion tests, fatigue tests, and numerical simulations to investigate the fatigue performance of steel strands with different corrosion characteristics. Subsequently, a numerical method is established to analyze fatigue life based on these characteristics. Moreover, a morphological statistical analysis of corroded steel strand pits is conducted based on the control variable method, and the influence of pit characteristics on pit stress concentration is studied. The coupling effect of pit depth and length–width ratio is comprehensively considered, and a dual-parameter stress concentration model is established. Using the proposed stress concentration model combined with the fatigue life formula, the fatigue life of the corroded steel strands is predicted. Based on the stress life method, ABAQUS and FE-SAFE are used to establish a numerical analysis method for the fatigue life of single-pit and multiple-pit steel strands with pit depth and length–width ratio as the main parameters. The comparison between the results of the stress concentration factor and fatigue life numerical methods and experimental values shows that the correlation coefficients are as high as 0.941 and 0.975, respectively. Hence, the numerical predictions and experimental results are consistent.