Distribution Characteristics of Welding Residual Stress at U Deck-to-Rib Connection Detail of Steel Box Girder

This study aimed to research the influence of residual stress on fatigue resistance at the deck-to-rib weld joint of steel box girder. Research on distribution characteristics of the field of residual stress is a precondition to verifying the influence on fatigue resistance. The study was conducted taking Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge as an example to simulate the entire welding process and the distribution of residual stress. The influence of panel thickness on residual stress was analysed. Then, empirical formulae for the residual stress distribution were proposed. The results indicate that the variation of residual stress fields can be simulated accurately using numerical methods, i.e. ANSYS thermal-structural analysis. The panel thickness has little influence on the peak residual stress at the local weld zone, and the peak transverse residual stress is approximately 300 MPa. The residual stress distribution across the thickness of the deck is in good agreement with the sinusoidal distribution, which implies that considering sine function as the empirical distribution model is feasible.