ABSTRACT
Songpu Bridge, a riveted steel truss bridge, was transformed for more traffic, and therefore, the truss members and riveted gusset joints required strengthening. Here, a typical truss joint connecting chords, verticals, and diagonals was focused. The strengthening of the joint included the truss members, gusset plates, and rivets. The tension and compression diagonals were strengthened by bolting additional steel plates and angles to the members, respectively. The gusset plates were strengthened by adding new cover plates, which had a large central opening such that they could be attached to the existing gusset plates without removing the existing rivets. Additional rivets were installed to connect the strengthened members and gusset plates. After strengthening, the riveted gusset joint had a complicated configuration. To evaluate the performance of the joint, a full-scale specimen that simulated one quarter part of the joint was experimentally tested. Failure modes including yielding of gusset plates and diagonal member and shear failure of rivets were observed. An ultimate bearing capacity of 11868 kN was obtained. The experiment aided the designing of the strengthening solution of the riveted gusset joint.
