ABSTRACT
Overloaded trucks could induce considerable fatigue damage on bridges over the time, especially on steel bridges. Recent years has seen a fast-increasing number of overload permit requests which bring a large amount of workload for bridge administration. Therefore, developing rational vehicle weight limits and overload permit checking procedures is highly desired. In this study, a method for determining proper vehicle weight limits is proposed based on the consideration of the cumulative fatigue damage of bridges. A typical steel-concrete composite girder bridge is adopted as an example for illustrating the proposed method. The results from this study can not only be used to develop vehicle weight limits and assist overload permit checking but also to assess the fatigue damage and predict the future development of fatigue damage of existing bridges.
