Fatigue study on additional cutout between U shaped rib and floorbeam in orthotropic bridge deck

The field around additional cutout of the floor beam web in orthotropic bridge deck was subjected to high stress concentration, especially the weld toe between floor beam and U shaped rib and the free edge of the additional cutout. Based on different considerations, different geometrical parameters of additional cutout were proposed in European, American and Japanese specifications, and there remained remarkable differences among them. In this study, considering influence of out-ofplane deformation of floor beam web and U shaped rib, parameter analysis for additional cutout under typical load cases was performed by fine finite element method. The influence of additional cutout shape and height to the stress distribution around the additional cutout were investigated and analyzed. Meanwhile, the static and fatigue test on this structure details was carried out. The stress distribution was consistent with the finite element analysis results. The fatigue property for additional cutout height of 95mm was slightly better than that of 61.5 mm.