Study on the technology of ribbed angle steel reinforcement for crack at rib-to-deck welds

The reinforcement technology for rib-to-deck weld cracks in orthotropic steel deck should be both efficient and lightweight, particularly for multi-crack reinforcement within a single compartment, to avoid adding excessive weight that could affect the structural stress. In this paper, a lightweight reinforcement technology using ribbed angle steel was proposed. By conducting tests and numerical simulations, the reinforcement effect of ribbed angle steel for rib-to-deck weld cracks was analyzed, with a focus on the influence of stiffener thickness, spacing, and arrangement on the reinforcement effect. Reasonable parameters were then suggested. The effectiveness of the proposed technology and parameters was demonstrated through a real bridge simulation. The results show that ribbed angle steel, compared to angle steel, offers effective reinforcement while being lighter in weight. The failure behaviour of ribbed angle steel is consistent with that of plain angle steel, and the quality of adhesive layer construction should be strictly controlled during actual implementation. Increasing the thickness of the stiffeners can enhance the reinforcement effect, while increasing the spacing between stiffeners can reduce the reinforcement effect. When using ribbed angle steel with 4 mm thick angle steel, 6 mm thick stiffeners, and 20 mm stiffener spacing to reinforce cracks, the reinforcement effect is superior to that of 10 mm plain angle steel.