Fatigue of riveted connections

Abstract

The renovation or replacement of existing steel bridges in North America is a topic of increasing importance. Because most older structures used riveted connections, rather than the bolted or welded connections that are common today, information on the fatigue life of riveted connections is required for a proper evaluation of the structure.The study reported herein provides a summary and evaluation of the existing data on the fatigue strength of riveted connections, and reports on the results of fatigue tests on some highway bridge members taken from service. Fatigue tests were also carried out on new material containing unfilled holes, both as a reference for riveted connections (rivets with zero clamping force) and with respect to new work in which misplaced holes might be present. The beneficial effect of filling misplaced holes with high-strength bolts is noted. Key words: bolts, failure, fatigue, holes, steels.