Ultimate and fatigue limit states of existing steel railway bridges – LRFD with historical steel products and connection types

Abstract The assessment of the load‐bearing capacity and fatigue strength of existing railway bridges has been playing an increasingly important role in the infrastructure management of railway operators for several years now. Currently, many bridge structures have been in operation longer than it was foreseen during their planning and construction. In addition, the axle loads on many lines, as well as the demands on the reliability of the verification results, have steadily increased. As the material properties and construction techniques in existing structures differ to some extent from nowadays structures, e.g., riveting instead of welding, it is important to provide engineers and operators with recommendations for the assessment of existing steel bridges. This article summarises the studies conducted as part of a research project initiated by Deutsche Bahn Netz AG for possible updates to DB RiL 805, which is used for the verification of railway bridges in the Deutsche Bahn (DB) network. The studies concerned the transition of verification concepts against static and fatigue loads used in the past to limit state verifications with partial safety factors in accordance with the Eurocodes. While initially related to an upgrade of a specific operator's design recommendation, the findings in this article are of more general nature and could form the basis for similar developments of recommendations for the assessment of existing, riveted structures independently throughout Europe.