FATIGUE-STRENGTH OF COPE HOLE DETAILS IN STEEL BRIDGES

Cope holes found at the intersections of steel structural members to a ccess crossing welds may cause high stress concentration and decrease the fatigue strength of the detail. In this study, fatigue strength an d local stresses for cope hole details existing in I-section beams ben t in-planes were investigated by fatigue tests, stress measurements an d stress analyses. The experimental results showed the fatigue strengt h of cope hole details was extremely low due to the local stress aroun d the cope holes. In particular, when shear deformation was induced in a gap of flange plate inside a cope hole, the local stress was greatl y increased. Using an analytical approach, the relationship between th e magnitude of local stress and some influential parameters was invest igated and a simple method to estimate the local stress for cope hole details is proposed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.