ABSTRACT
It’s always been a great technical problem for bridge engineering in the study method of fatigue behavior at macro-structure level. The current study methods, including single-point excitation test and numerical simulation, cannot provide the most realistic basis for fatigue design, due to the loading pattern inauthenticity and calculation inaccuracy. In order to provide a reliable experimental verification means for bridge structure fatigue study, Zhejiang Scientific Research Institute of Transport (ZJIT) and Tongji University jointly developed a wheel-moving fatigue test machine to simulate the structural fatigue behavior under the actual loading conditions. In this paper, the whole development process and the composition of the machine were briefly introduced. Then, its applications in two bridge structure tests were presented. The testing results showed that the loading accuracy of the wheel-moving machine satisfies the basic application requirements. However, the appearance of the running instability should be paid more attention in future research.
