New Bridge Design Codes Improve Safety and Durability Worldwide
The article compares different rules for designing steel bridge decks to withstand fatigue. The researchers looked at codes from the US, Europe, Japan, and China for the Nanjing Yangtze River Third Bridge. They found that Eurocode and Japanese code consider cumulative damage, which is more realistic. Japanese and American codes have similar fatigue strength grades, while Eurocode is the most detailed. Chinese code follows Eurocode but needs improvement. The axle weight in Chinese code is the same as Eurocode, which is the safest for engineering applications.