Abstract: To investigate into the fatigue damage of a concrete continuous beam bridge in service under vehicle load, we built models of standard fatigue vehicles according to traffic flow statistics, and subsequently established a finite element model of the bridge. By calculating the fatigue damage of concrete and prestressed tendons at different longitudinal sections along the bridge under standard three-axle vehicles running through the whole bridge deck, we found that the fatigue damage of prestressed reinforcement at the first span floor is the largest. Moreover, under the present traffic flow of standard fatigue vehicles with ordinary spacings, the fatigue damage of bridge of the first span floor is small, with no fatigue failure.

Key words: bridge engineering, fatigue damage, nominal stress method, prestressed concrete continuous-girder bridge, overload vehicles