Repair and Retrofit of Fatigue Cracks in Steel Bridges
This online engineering PDH course delivers the best practices for repair and retrofit of fatigue cracks in steel bridges.
This course is also a guide for owners and consulting engineers to use for design and detailing of repairs and retrofits for fatigue cracks. It should be used in conjunction with existing specifications, codes, and engineering judgment. In addition to designing and executing the repairs and/or retrofits, there are numerous other steps involved in the inspection and assessment of a cracked bridge member.
When cracks are discovered in bridge elements (members or connections) in service, fatigue is usually the cause. Fatigue is the formation of a crack due to cyclic service loads. Fracture may be defined as rupture in tension or rapid extension of a crack, leading to gross deformation, loss of function or serviceability, or complete separation of the component. Periodic in-service inspection provides an opportunity to assure safety by detecting cracks before they grow to a critical size. The Federal Highway Administration has mandated a twenty-four month inspection interval for all highway bridges located on public roads which is intended to detect problems before they become critical to structural performance.
This 9 PDH online course is applicable to civil and structural engineers as well as consulting engineers who are interested in design and detailing of repairs and retrofits for fatigue cracks.
This PE continuing education course is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:
- Familiarizing with the definition of fatigue and fracture in steel bridges
- Developing a fracture control plan and carrying inspections
- Selecting the proper repair and retrofit strategy
- Assessing fatigue effect using several approaches such as nominal stress approach, local stress approach, fracture mechanics approach, etc.
- Understanding the repair and retrofit methods such as surface treatments, impact treatments, etc.
- Identifying out of plane distortion due to secondary stresses
- Learning the repair methods specific to out-of-plane distortion such as: hole drilling, web gap softening, web gap stiffening, etc.
- Knowing the repair methods by loads induced fatigue
Upon successful completion of the quiz, print your Certificate of Completion instantly. (Note: if you are paying by check or money order, you will be able to print it after we receive your payment.) For your convenience, we will also email it to you. Please note that you can log in to your account at any time to access and print your Certificate of Completion.