Hindawi

Advances in Civil Engineering

Volume 2021, Article ID 6632212, 14 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6632212

Research Article
Improvement of Stop-Hole Method on Fatigue-Cracked Steel
Plates by Using High-Strength Bolts and CFRP Strips

Xu Jiang ,1 Zhilin Lv ,1 Xuhong Qiang ,2 and Jiandong Zhang 3

1
Department of Bridge Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
2
Department of Structural Engineering, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
3
JSTI Group, Nanjing, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Xuhong Qiang; [email protected]

Received 20 October 2020; Revised 24 January 2021; Accepted 29 January 2021; Published 11 February 2021

Academic Editor: Raffaele Landolfo

Copyright © 2021 Xu Jiang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Steel bridges are extremely damaged by fatigue subjected to cycling load. Therefore, it is often necessary to put forward effective
reinforcement to strengthen steel structures during the daily maintenance. In this study, two repairing methods of high-strength
bolts and high-modulus CFRP strips on the basis of stop-hole repair method were introduced, respectively, to investigate fatigue
improvement of cracked steel plates. First of all, numerical analysis was conducted to predict the repair efficiency and investigate
the optimal parameters of each method. Variables studied were stop-hole diameter, pretightening force of bolt, and size of CFRP
patch. Subsequently, a total of 12 specimens were tested to study the repairing efficiency of cracked steel plates with various
strengthening methods through cyclic loading. At the same time, the failure mode and fatigue life were analyzed to present the
improvement of fatigue performance. In addition, the experimental results were compared against the S-N curves of this
strengthened fatigue detail. The outcomes of this study revealed that an improvement in the influence of fatigue-crack repair with
the adoption of these two strengthening methods was evident. Numerical results showed that the addition of these materials could
significantly diminish stress concentration factor around hole edge and improve their fatigue performance in comparison with
only stop-hole method. Fatigue test results indicated that the crack initiation life of specimens repaired by stop-hole method was
more than 20 times that of the unrepaired specimens. The high-strength bolt reinforced stop hole and CFRP patched stop hole can
extend the crack initiation life by 9 and 8 times, respectively, in contrast to control specimens with sole stop-hole method. Finally,
it was demonstrated that repairing damaged steel plates with stop-hole method alone was not enough to satisfy the fatigue strength
requirements of various countries. But the fatigue strength category of damaged steel plates after further repairing with high-
strength bolts and high-elastic-modulus CFRP, respectively, was higher than category A of AASHTO.

1. Introduction while these methods might not be feasible in all cases.

Among them, the stop-hole method, as a temporary or
A number of steel bridges built in earlier ages are still in emergency treatment, can effectively repair fatigue cracks
existence and in service. However, with ever-increasing caused by stress concentration at the tip of cracks and thus
traffic volumes and required extension of the service life of extend the fatigue life of cracked structural components
steel bridges, fatigue cracks are prone to appear, especially at [2–4]. However, due to the drilling defects and new stress
welded connections of orthotropic steel bridge decks [1]. In concentration region around the stop hole, the cracks may
order to reduce the damage of fatigue cracks, it is of great generate again from the edge of hole during a relatively short
significance to conduct fatigue strengthening in order to time [5]. In order to improve the crack arrest behavior of
eliminate fatigue cracks or retard further crack propagation drilling holes, a considerate number of experimental studies
in addition to early preventive maintenance. The traditional with respect to fatigue crack arresting and repairing were
repairing methods of steel structures include stop-hole presented in recent decades. Many researchers had analyzed
method, rewelding, and new plate attachment/replacement, the relevant parameters such as reasonable hole diameter
2 Advances in Civil Engineering

[6, 7], hole position [8, 9], hole shape [10], and additional prepared in a similar way, as illustrated in Figure 1. Each
hole arrangement method [11], but these are studied by all specimen has an initial damage composed of a 16 mm long
kinds of loading models that cannot be directly applied in notch and a 14 mm long artificial precrack in the middle of
steel bridges because of the different material properties. A the long edge. Then the cracked steel plates were repaired on
double stop-hole method proposed by Razavi et al. [12] can the damage area using various methods to enhance the
reduce the stress level around the hole to extend more fa- fatigue life. Figure 2 shows the repair scheme of specimens,
tigue life than that of common single stop-hole method, yet including (1) specimens repaired by only the stop-hole
potential risk of structure failure will exist due to weakening method, (2) specimens repaired by the high-strength bolt
of section stiffness. In terms of assistant operation of stop stop-hole method, and (3) specimens repaired by high-
holes, Duprat et al. [13] proposed the stop-hole method to modulus CFRP strips.
repair fatigue cracks, and adopting cold expanded hole
method or inserting interference fit fastener can effectively
delay second-time fatigue crack initiation. Furthermore, 2.2. Material Properties. The retrofitting system mainly
employing high-strength bolts for the stop-hole method can contains the three following main materials, namely, steel
reduce the peak stress near the stop hole through the pre- plate, CFRP strips, and structural adhesive. Table 1 lists all
tightening pressure for enhancement of repair effectiveness the material properties used in the FE modeling and ex-
[14]. However, there were few data available about fatigue periments. The grade of utilized steel plates in all experi-
improvement achieved by combining stop hole with high- ments was Q345. Furthermore, material experiments of
strength bolts. three steel plates were conducted and mechanical properties
Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), recognized as were obtained. The experiments adopted the UT70-30
an advanced composite material, possess excellent me- carbon fiber cloth produced by Japan Toray Industries, and
chanical properties, such as high strength-to-weight ratio, the material properties of the structural adhesive were
good antifatigue performance, and convenience of instal- provided by the manufacturer.
lation. Because of those excellent properties, the method
using CFRP for retrofitting aging metallic structures is a 2.3. FE Modeling and Analysis
research hotspot developed in recent years [15, 16]. For
example, the old metal riveted structures can be retrofitted 2.3.1. Modeling Description. To obtain the optimal config-
by means of externally bonded CFRP. In [17], the authors uration of repair test, numerical models were established to
focused on the lap shear tests on hot-driven riveted con- study the effect of repair key parameters on the stress dis-
nections strengthened by CFRP, which demonstrated the tribution of steel plates. Figure 3 shows the unrepaired
efficacy as a repair material. Furthermore, the majority of model and mesh of crack tip set up by FEM software
existing studies confirmed that crack growth can be pre- ABAQUS. All the models of steel plates adopted solid
vented by directly covering the crack area of steel plate with C3D8R elements, and crack tip was meshed with 6-node
carbon fiber reinforced polymers under the cyclic loading linear triangular prism elements (C3D6). The artificial
[18–20]. For the sake of promoting the effectiveness of the precrack was created by assigning seam in the software. The
repair, CFRP materials can be utilized to strengthen the sole global element size was 2 mm, but, for local area of crack, the
single drilling-hole method [21]. It is a promising method to finite element mesh was finely divided to 0.5 mm. Taking
eliminate crack tip by drilling hole and then lessen the stress into account the actual loading in the experiment, during the
around the hole edge of steel plates strengthened by CFRP. modeling process, the actual clamping surface of
In this paper, two kinds of strengthened stop-hole 55 mm × 45 mm above is constrained to the displacement in
methods, the high-strength bolt reinforced stop-hole the x, y, and z directions, and the surface traction-shear load
method and the CFRP patched stop-hole method, were of 60 kN is applied to the actual clamping surface of
investigated and compared. Firstly, the stress variation of 55 mm × 45 mm below, which makes the steel plate in a
12 mm thick cracked steel plates affected by the key repair tension state.
parameters was analyzed by finite element method. On this Figure 4 manifests the finite element models of various
basis, a series of experimental tests were conducted to de- strengthening methods. For stop-hole model (Model 1), the
termine the fatigue enhancement with various strengthening center of crack stop hole was set at the crack tip. Besides,
method through cyclic loading. Besides, the test values of boundary conditions and load conditions were identical to
repaired groups were compared against the fatigue strength the unrepaired model. In Model 2, considering that the bolt
curves. plays the role of connection and fastening, for the purpose of
simplicity, the friction coefficient between the bolt gasket
2. Specimen Design and Numerical Simulation and steel plate was not considered for the time being. The
high-strength bolt adopted beam element to model and used
2.1. Specimen Preparation. In order to investigate the crack the MPC beam to transfer the pretightening force imposed
propagation of steel bridge plates and subsequent repair by bolt load to the area of gasket. The other conditions of
tests, the thickness of specimens is 12 mm, which has the Model 2 were the same as those of the crack arrest hole
common thickness of the diaphragms or crossbeams used in model. For the high-modulus CFRP repair model, CFRP
steel bridges. The dumbbell-shaped specimens, with di- strips were pasted at the crack areas on both sides of the steel
mensions of 620 × 230 (length × width), were designed and plates based on Model 1. The patch consisted of 10 layers of
Advances in Civil Engineering 3

35

60
60
R69

16
Precrack
10 6 14
Crack tip

620

380

6
Precrack

60

35
60

230

Figure 1: Dimensions of the specimen and damage (mm).

Stop hole
Gasket
Stop hole

30 30

High-strength
bolt
CFRP strips

12 12 12

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2: Dimensions of strengthened steel plates with various repair methods (mm). (a) Stop-hole repair group. (b) High-strength bolt
stop-hole group. (c) Highmodulus CFRP repair group.

Table 1: Material properties in the test.

Property Steel plate UT70-30 CFRP Adhesive
Thickness (mm) 12 0.167 0.55
Yield strength (MPa) 418 — —
Tensile strength (MPa) 541 4216 53.1
Young’s modulus (GPa) 2.105 252 2.49
Poisson’s ratio 0.3 0.3 0.3
Shear modulus (GPa) — 13 —
4 Advances in Civil Engineering

Ux = Uy = Uz = 0 z x
y

Seam Surface load

Figure 3: Numerical model of specimens without repairing.

Repair area

Stop hole

th
id
Bolt

W
Stop hole
Gasket area
Lengt CFRP
h
Adhesive
(c) (b) (a)
Figure 4: Numerical models of various strengthening method. (a) Model 1. (b) Model 2. (c) Model 3.

CFRP cloth with the fiber direction perpendicular to the was evaluated by stress concentration factor (Kt) and fatigue
crack. The CFRP strips were meshed with conventional shell notch coefficient (Kf ). Kt and Kf can be acquired from
element (S4R) created by “composite-layup” in ABAQUS equations (1) and (2), respectively, where σ max is the
and the adhesive was also modeled by S4R element. In practical maximum stress obtained from finite element
general, it is assumed that CFRP strips and steel plate are analytical results, σ nom is the nominal stress calculated by
firmly bonded in the finite element model and the com- equations (3), and c belongs to constant of material (c � 0.45
ponents are in the linear elastic stage during fatigue loading. for steel Q345) [22]; ρ is the radius of stop hole. In equation
Consequently, the “tie” constraint was used between the (3), P refers to the load, and W is the width of the inner edge
CFRP-adhesive and adhesive-steel plate interfaces, which of the steel plate; a is the length of the crack; b is the length of
coordinated displacement and stress in the interfaces. All the the notch; t is the thickness of the steel plate; D is the di-
material properties used in the modeling are in agreement ameter of the crack arrest hole.
with Table 1. The optimal parameters of each method were
σ max
investigated by finite element analysis. The parameters Kt � , (1)
mainly include the crack stop-hole diameter, the level of σ nom
pretightening force, and the size of CFRP strips.
Kt − 1
Kf � 1 + , (2)
1 + c/ρ
2.3.2. The Influence of Hole Diameter. Five finite element
models of specimens with the diameters of 8 mm, 10 mm, P(2a + 2b + D + W)
14 mm, 18 mm, and 22 mm are, respectively, established to σ nom � . (3)
t(W − a − b − D/2)2
optimize the dimensions of the stop hole. The maximum
stress of steel plates under different hole diameter was Table 2 lists the stress concentration coefficient and
calculated and the crack arrest effect of repaired steel plates fatigue notch coefficient of stop-hole model under different
Advances in Civil Engineering 5

Table 2: Kt and Kf of stop-hole model under different diameters. bolt stop-hole method possesses the better crack arrest
Diameter D/mm σ max /MPa σ nom /MPa Kt Kf
behavior than only stop-hole method.
0 (no hole) 358.5 65.1 5.51 —
8 274.8 71.8 3.83 3.75 2.3.4. Size of CFRP Patch. To determine the optimal size of
10 258.7 73.6 3.51 3.46 the CFRP patch, sizes (width × length) of 30 mm × 50 mm,
14 238.0 77.3 3.08 3.05
40 mm × 50 mm, 50 mm × 50 mm, and 60 mm × 50 mm were
18 225.6 81.3 2.77 2.75
22 218.1 85.4 2.55 2.54
simulated and calculated, respectively. Figure 10 shows that,
with the increase of the width of the CFRP patch, the
maximum principal stress of the steel plate decreases but not
diameters. The maximum principal stress decreases with the obviously. This suggests that a width of 40 mm is sufficient to
increase of the hole diameter, but the decrease tendency control the stress at the crack. However, considering the
slows down gradually. Similarly, Kt and Kf show the same possible defects during the pasting process, a width of 50 mm
trend. This can be attributed to the fact that the plastic region was selected finally. The numerical results demonstrate that
appears only in a small range near the crack tip, and the the stress distribution of CFRP is mainly located in the range
increase of the hole diameter will be of little significance after of the stop hole around the crack, which entails that a length
reaching a certain extent. In addition, excessive increase of of 50 mm is sufficient if the CFRP strips and steel plate are
the hole diameter will easily weaken the section stiffness and ideally bonded. However, tests showed that debonding
result in strength damage. Considering the balance of crack occurred at the beginning of the cyclic load by using
arrest effect and weakening effect, the stop-hole diameter 50 mm × 50 mm CFRP patch. In order to provide more
was taken as 14 mm. adhesive anchoring area, the CFRP length of the patch was
The maximum principal stress contour results of nu- extended to 250 mm [23].
merical model with 14 mm hole are shown in Figure 5. It is The principal stress distributions of steel plate and
obvious that new stress concentration appears at the edge of 50 mm × 250 mm CFRP patch are shown in Figure 11.
stop hole, making the position become the potential new Compared with Figure 5, the maximum principal stress of
crack initiation point. Figure 6 depicts the maximum the CFRP repaired model is 81.9 MPa, which is only 34.4%
principal stress distribution along the thickness of the hole at that of the single stop-hole repaired model. But the degree of
the minimum section of the crack arrest hole. The edge of the reduction is smaller than that of the reinforcement method
crack arrest hole is all in a relatively high stress state. From of high-strength bolt. Combined with Figure 12, the section
the perspective of the trend, it is evidenced that new fatigue stiffness of the steel plate has a sudden change at the notch
cracks are prone to generate at the middle of the hole edge crack, which increases the load stress of the adhesive layer
and further develop. here, thereby increasing the bearing capacity of CFRP. The
single-layer CFRP has stress concentration at the crack, and
the stress reaches 328.7 MPa. It is proved that pasting CFRP
2.3.3. Level of Pretightening Force. The maximum principal cloth can effectively reduce the partial load of the damaged
stresses of different pretightening force levels were plotted in section by increasing the structural rigidity, thereby in-
Figure 7. The pretightening force of 30 kN is selected because creasing the fatigue life of the damaged steel plates.
the maximum principal stress is at the lowest level in this
condition. The corresponding stress nephogram in Figure 8 3. Experimental Program
indicates that the main stress distribution of the hole has
changed significantly after the addition of high-strength 3.1. Process of Strengthening Test. Four types of specimens,
bolt. The original tensile area around the edge of hole that is (1) specimens without repairing, as control specimens for
liable to suffer fatigue cracking has become a compression- comparison, (2) specimens repaired by only the stop-hole
oriented area. At the same time, the other side of the hole method, (3) specimens repaired by the high-strength bolt
turns into a tension-oriented area, which has maximum stop-hole method, and (4) specimens repaired by high-
tensile stress at the surface of steel plates. The reason is that modulus CFRP strips, were proposed in this research. Each
when the specimen is subjected to tensile action, the crack group includes 3 steel plates.
will produce relative displacement, but the pressure gen- To simulate the initial damage, all specimens were
erated between the surface of the steel plate and the bolt precracked prior to being repaired. Considering the crack
gasket prevents the crack growth. Figure 9 presents the trend uniformity, precision control, and practical maneuverability,
of stress along the thickness of the hole under a preload of CNC wire-cutting machine was finally chosen to produce
30 kN. It can be seen from the chart that the stress at the the cracks. The crack length was set to 14 mm, as shown in
smallest section of the crack arrest hole is significantly re- Figure 13; afterwards, the cracked steel plates needed to be
duced, and the tension area of about 1.5 mm near the surface strengthened. For various repair groups, stop holes were
is even converted into compressive zone. The stress at the drilled at the crack tips with a hole of 14 mm in diameter. In
hole edge is reduced to nearly 82.6% of that of the only stop- particular, M12 high-strength (grade 12.9) bolts were
hole model and, furthermore, the stress at the surface of steel tightened into stop holes and gaskets of 19 mm in diameter
plate is down by approximately 103% (from tensile stress to were used for high-strength bolt repair group. Then torque
compressive stress). It can be concluded that high-strength wrench was employed to apply 30 kN pretightening force to
6 Advances in Civil Engineering

S, max. principal S, max. principal

(avg: 75%) (avg: 75%)
+2.380e + 02
+2.181e + 02 +1.772e + 02
+1.982e + 02 +1.604e + 02
+1.783e + 02 +1.437e + 02
+1.584e + 02
+1.385e + 02 +1.269e + 02
+1.186e + 02 +1.102e + 02
+9.871e + 01 +9.344e + 01
+7.882e + 01
+5.892e + 01 +7.670e + 01
+3.902e + 01 +5.996e + 01
+1.913e + 01
–7.709e – 01
+4.322e + 01
+2.648e + 01
+9.737e + 00
–7.005e + 00
–2.375e + 01

Compression area

Figure 5: Maximum principal stress distribution.

Figure 8: The principal stress of model with 30 kN preload (MPa).
240

45
Maximum principal stress (MPa)

40
235
Maximum principal stress (MPa)
35
30
25
230
20
Extracted path
15
225 10
5
0
220 –5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 –10
Thickness (mm) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Figure 6: The trend of principal stress along the thickness of the Thickness (mm)
hole under the preload. Figure 9: The trend of stress along the thickness of the hole under
the preload.

280 100
270
260
Maximum principal stress (MPa)

Maximum principal stress (MPa)

250 90
240
230
220 80
210
200
190 70
180
170
160 60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 20 30 40 50 60 70
Pretightening force (kN) Width of CFRP patch (mm)
Figure 7: The principal stress of steel plate under various preloads. Figure 10: Maximum principal stress of different CFRP widths.
Advances in Civil Engineering 7

S, max. principal
S, max. principal multiple section points
(avg: 75%) (avg: 75%)
+8.187e + 01 +3.287e + 02
+7.477e + 01 +3.026e + 02
+6.766e + 01 +2.765e + 02
+6.056e + 01 +2.504e + 02
+5.345e + 01 +2.244e + 02
+4.635e + 01 +1.983e + 02
+3.925e + 01 +1.722e + 02
+3.214e + 01 +1.462e + 02
+2.504e + 01 +1.201e + 02
+1.793e + 01 +9.402e + 01
+1.083e + 01 +6.795e + 01
+3.724e + 00 +4.187e + 01
–3.380e + 00 +1.580e + 01

Figure 11: Stress contour of steel plate and CFRP patch (MPa).

the bolts, as illustrated in Figure 14; with regard to the high- stop-hole tip; the strain gauge at the crack or crack stop
modulus CFRP repair group, the carbon fiber strips were cut (about 2 mm from the center of the strain gauge to the edge)
into the size of 250 mm long and 50 mm wide. The designed was added to the unstrengthened group (Group 1) and the
bonding area of steel plates was pretreated with grinding stop-hole repair group (Group 2), as shown in
machine to increase surface roughness so that CFRP strips Figures 16(a)∼16(b). The distances between each group of
can be well pasted by structural adhesive. After pasting the strain gauges and the edge of steel plate are also shown in the
CFRP strips on double sides of steel plates, the specimens figure. During the time that the crack propagated to a certain
were cured at room temperature for more than seven days position, the placed strain gauge would emerge a sharp
until the adhesive reached the required strength. The specific change, so that the crack growth with fatigue cycles can be
fabrication of specimens in Group 4 followed the steps recorded. The position of the strain rosette was taken as the
shown in Figure 14. measuring point of the nominal stress for Group 1, Group 2,
and Group 3, while the strain gauge 60 mm away from the
edge of the steel plate is used as the nominal stress mea-
3.2. Test Setup and Instrumentation. All the fatigue tests were surement point. When the fatigue crack reached the mea-
performed in a static/fatigue servo hydraulic machine sured point 90 mm away from the edge of steel plate, it was
named MTS647 Test Frame System. As depicted in Fig- regarded as complete fatigue failure of specimens. Contin-
ure 15, the specimens were loaded symmetrically at the uous sampling and dynamic monitoring are utilized in the
middle point. The clamping area of the upper and lower test process.
clamps was 100 mm × 126 mm. Two ends of the test steel
plates were gripped in the lower end and upper head, and the 4. Results and Discussion
load was applied by the upper-end actuator.
4.1. Comparison of Static Test and FEM. Figure 17 presented
Before the fatigue test, all specimens were loaded stat-
the typical load-stress relationships of the four groups under
ically to 60 kN in tension and then unloaded to zero to check
static load. During the static load process, the measured
the working condition of strain gauges and verify the reli-
stress was calculated by Hooke’s law, since the structure
ability of finite element analysis results. Afterwards, the
belongs to the linear elastic stage. It was obvious that nu-
tension-tension fatigue tests were performed using constant
merical results were nearly in accordance with the experi-
amplitude sinusoidal loading cycles with a load frequency of
mental ones, which suggested that the finite element models
10 Hz and a stress ratio R � 0.1 (R � σ min/σ max). It should be
can correctly simulate the stress distribution of the
noted that bridge members are usually subjected to stress
specimen.
ratio around 0.1 because of the influence of heavy dead load.
The maximum load was around 50% of steel tensile yield
load. In order to improve the test loading efficiency, the 4.2. Failure Mode Analysis. The typical fatigue crack growth
design load amplitude of the test was relatively larger. The behavior of all specimens under the cycling loading was
applied cycling load ranges for each specimen are shown in depicted in Figure 18; with the increase of the number of
Table 3. fatigue cycles, the fatigue cracks continued to develop along
For the purpose of monitoring strain distribution near the direction perpendicular to applied tensile stress. For
the fatigue source on the steel plates and crack propagation unrepaired group, the measured stress amplitude changed
during the fatigue loading, two strain rosettes and four strain significantly after a few fatigue cycles. The fatigue crack
gauges were placed at the same position for Group 1, Group initiations of specimens 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 were triggered at
2, and Group 3, respectively. Due to the constraint effect of the crack front, while the fatigue source originated from the
strengthening CFRP strips, only four strain gauges were edge of hole where stress concentrated for other groups; the
attached to the steel plates as shown in Figure 16(d). findings of this experiment showed the similar way with
However, the first strain rosette is far away from the crack or previous finite element results. Certainly, the fatigue crack
8 Advances in Civil Engineering

S, S22 S, S12
multiple section points multiple section points
(avg: 75%) (avg: 75%)
+5.603e + 00 +4.174e – 01
+5.144e + 00 +3.471e – 01
+4.685e + 00 +2.768e – 01
+4.226e + 00 +2.064e – 01
+3.767e + 00 +1.361e – 01
+3.309e + 00 +6.578e – 02
+2.850e + 00 –4.554e – 03
+2.391e + 00 –7.489e – 02
+1.932e + 00 –1.452e – 01
+1.473e + 00 –2.155e – 01
+1.014e + 00 –2.859e – 01
+5.556e – 01 –3.562e – 01
+9.675e – 02 –4.265e – 01

(a) (b)

Figure 12: Adhesive layer stress of high-elastic-modulus CFRP paste repair. (a) Normal stress. (b) Shear stress.

Unrepaired group Crack stop hole group

Figure 13: Unrepaired group and crack stop-hole group.

(1) Surface preparation (2) Adhesive blending

(5) Pressurized
Torque wrench (3) Adhesive distribution (4) Repeated compaction maintenance for 7 days

Figure 14: High-strength bolt repair group and CFRP repair group.

growth of the repaired specimens was obviously delayed due Therefore, the failure finally occurred at the minimum
to the elimination of crack tip. section of the stop hole, which was the same as Group 2.
In particular, for Group 3, the washers and nuts suffered However, the washers or nuts of tested specimen 3-3 were
from fatigue cracking firstly under the action of friction due not damaged, and the relative slip between the washers and
to the cumulative damage, as shown in Figures 19(a)∼19(b). the steel plate was obvious at an early stage, indicating that
It is a fact that the crack point was located at the notch gab, the loss of pretightening force happened, as shown in
where section stiffness had an abrupt change; thus, stress Figure 19(c), so its fatigue life did not reach the expected
concentration appeared. Subsequently the preload of high- level. The failure of 3-3 is probably due to the large stress
strength bolt failed, the crack arrest mechanism of high- amplitude and the insufficient friction caused by the defi-
strength bolts degenerated into a single stop-hole mecha- ciency of the pretightening force. This situation should be
nism, and stress redistribution occurred around the hole. avoided during actual on-site repairing, and a certain
Advances in Civil Engineering 9

ratio. The crack initiation life refers to the number of fa-

tigue cycles that a crack regenerates at the edge of the arrest
hole, while the crack initiation life plus the life for the
propagation of the crack to the length position of
Fatigue testing a � 90 mm is the total fatigue life. The efficiency of
machine
strengthening was evaluated for cracked specimens with
the fatigue life extension ratio that represents the ratio of
Upper grip the crack initiation life of repaired specimens to that of the
unrepaired specimens.
From the data in Table 4, it is clear that all the repaired
Test specimen specimens achieve significant enhancement of fatigue life. In
addition, crack initiation life dominated the entire fatigue
life for repaired specimens. It can be observed that the crack
Lower grip initiation life of the specimens can be extended by more than
20 times using the stop-hole repairing method. With respect
to the stop-hole repairing method, the use of high-strength
bolts showed a 9-time increase over that of the only stop-
hole one. Particularly, the fatigue life of the specimen is
obviously decreased due to the pretightening force failure of
high-strength bolts. Nonetheless, it is still 4.7 times of that of
Figure 15: Fatigue test set-up. the repair with only the stop hole. For the high-modulus
CFRP strips repairing method, the fatigue life of the spec-
Table 3: Summary of load cases of test specimens. imens is more than 8 times of that of the specimen repaired
Strengthening method Specimen Load range (kN) solely with the stop-hole repairing method. Similarly, the
1-1 16.7∼166.7
premature debonding failure of the CFRP-strengthened
Unrepaired (Group 1) 1-2 19.4∼194.4 specimens led to the reduction of the fatigue life at the early
1–3 22.2∼222.2 stage. The fatigue life of specimens using CFRP strips ex-
2-1 16.7∼166.7 tended 1.8 times compared to the stop-hole groups. How-
Only stop-hole (Group 2) 2-2 19.4∼194.4 ever, too small pretightening force is prone to cause interface
2-3 22.2∼222.2 slippage, leading to early failure of pretightening force. The
3–1 16.7∼166.7 smaller CFRP patch length, the greater possibility of early
High-strength bolt stop-hole debonding. So, the failure of pretightening force and early
3-2 19.4∼194.4
(Group 3) failure of CFRP strips should be avoided during practical
3-3 22.2∼222.2
4–1 16.7∼166.7 strengthening projects.
High-modulus CFRP (Group 4) 4-2 19.4∼194.4 The initial crack length of the nonrepaired group (Group 1)
4-3 22.2∼222.2 is deemed as 30 mm (including the notch length), while the
initial crack length of other groups is regarded as 37 mm. In the
test, the failures of strain gauge and visual inspection were used
technological treatment (such as sandblasting and rust removal)
to judge the degree of crack growth, and the fatigue cycles of
can be also carried out on the contact surface of the steel plate
crack propagation to 45 mm, 60 mm, and 90 mm were recorded,
and the bolt washer when necessary. For the high-modulus
respectively, as shown in Figure 21. Group 4 was not considered
CFRP repairing group, the failure was attributed to the
due to the few experimental points. It can be seen that the
debonding of the interface between CFRP strips and steel plates,
fatigue crack growth trends of all groups were similar. The crack
as shown in Figure 20. At the initial stage of fatigue loading, the
growth rate was accelerated after the formation of fatigue cracks,
CFRP strips can bear the force together with the steel plates, but,
and, within 100,000 cycles, the specimens all were fatigue-loaded
after a certain number of cycles, the end of the CFRP sheet
to failure. Moreover, the crack growth rate in the latter stage was
debonded; then the high-elastic-modulus CFRP repair mech-
higher than that in the former stage, indicating that fatigue
anism degenerated into the stop-hole repair mechanism.
damage was accelerated in the latter stage. It can be concluded
However, the test specimens 4-2 and 4-3 showed interfacial
that although crack stop hole and high-strength bolts repairing
debonding shortly after the beginning of higher dynamic load,
can delay the initiation of fatigue crack again, it has little in-
and the relative slip between CFRP strips and steel plates was
fluence on the propagation rate after crack initiation. Therefore,
obvious, indicating that the CFRP repairing failed at an early
it is necessary to avoid the failure of crack arrest mechanism and
stage and its fatigue life did not reach the expected level, which
fatigue cracking again in actual repair.
should be avoided in the actual on-site repairing.
5. Fatigue Performance on Repaired
4.3. Fatigue Improvement and Crack Propagation. Table 4 Specimens with S-N Method
presents a summary of the experimental program and test
results, including the load range, measured stress ampli- The test results were compared and analyzed with the relevant
tude, crack initiation life, total fatigue life, and its extension fatigue strength categories curves in the codes of various
10 Advances in Civil Engineering

Strain rosette Crack Stop hole

Steel plate
Steel plate

2
2
45 15 30 45 15 30

(a) (b)

Bolt CFRP + stop hole Steel plate

Steel plate

Strain
Strain 60 30 gauge
15 30 gauge
45

(c) (d)

Figure 16: Locations of strain gauges on specimens for crack detection (mm). (a) Unstrengthened group. (b) Stop-hole repair group. (c)
High-strength bolt stop-hole group. (d) High-modulus CFRP repair group.

100 180
90
150
80
Vertical stress (MPa)

Vertical stress (MPa)

70
120
60
50 90
40
60
30
20
30
10
0 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 30 40 50 60
Load (kN) Load (kN)

FEM (2 mm away from crack tip) FEM (2 mm away from crack tip)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
FEM (45 mm away from edge of steel plate) FEM (45 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
FEM (60 mm away from edge of steel plate) FEM (60 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
FEM (90 mm away from edge of steel plate) FEM (90 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
(a) (b)
Figure 17: Continued.
Advances in Civil Engineering 11

60 35

50 30

25
Vertical stress (MPa)

Vertical stress (MPa)

40
20
30
15
20
10

10 5

0 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 10 20 30 40 50 60
Load (kN) Load (kN)

FEM (45 mm away from edge of steel plate) FEM (60 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
FEM (60 mm away from edge of steel plate) FEM (90 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value Measured mean value
FEM (90 mm away from edge of steel plate)
Measured mean value
(c) (d)

Figure 17: Comparison of experimental results and FEM calculated values. (a) Group 1. (b) Group 2. (c) Group 3. (d) Group 4.

Crack Crack

Unrepaired group Stop hole group

Crack Crack

High-strength bolt group CFRP repair group

Figure 18: Typical fatigue cracking of specimens.

countries [24–27]. For fatigue detail of sheared or gas cut plates, Figure 22 illustrates a comparison of fatigue test data
Eurocode BS EN1993-1-9 Fatigue strength class [2005] is against fatigue strength categories of the various specifica-
classified as 140 MPa or 125 MPa according to whether the tions. As can be seen in the figure, the differences in fatigue
edge is ground. The given fatigue detail is defined as category C curves for this detail are relatively small. The fatigue strength
by British and Japanese fatigue codes. Although the American of the stop-hole group was lower than the requirements of
code does not specify this detail category, category A in national codes, which further indicated that this method
AASHTO can be referred in the assessment according to the could not effectively prevent the fatigue crack from
base metal with rolled or cleaned surfaces and flame-cut edges. respreading for a long time when repairing the steel plates
12 Advances in Civil Engineering

Slippage
Crack

Crack
3-1 3-2 3-3

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 19: Observation of Group 3 during fatigue test. (a) Fatigue crack of washer. (b) Fatigue crack of washer and nut. (c) Slippage of
washer.

Debonding Debonding
Debonding

4-1 4-2 4-3

Figure 20: CFRP debonding of Group 4 during fatigue test.

Table 4: Fatigue test results of specimens.

Strengthening Test Load amplitude Measured stress Crack initiation life Total fatigue life Fatigue life
method specimen (kN) amplitude (MPa) (104 times) (104 times) extension ratio
1-1 150 157 1.0 8.2 1
Unrepaired 1-2 175 180 0.5 4.6 1
1-3 200 204 0.4 3.7 1
2-1 150 210 20.5 25.2 20.5
Only stop-hole 2-2 175 230 13.5 17.1 27
2-3 200 288 5.0 8.1 12.5
3-1 150 185 178.5 180.7 178.5
High-strength bolt
3-2 175 201 139.5 141.9 279
stop-hole
3-3∗ 200 231 23.5 26.6 58.75
4-1 150 197 172.7 175.7 172.7
High-modulus CFRP 4-2∗ 175 228 20.0 24.7 40
4-3∗ 200 250 13.0 18.2 32.5
∗
Washer slippage occurred in the 3-3 specimen, and CFRP debonding failures occurred in the 4-2 and 4-3 specimens.

with initial cracks. But it was often used as a temporary crack stop-hole method. It was obvious that the high-strength bolt
arrest measure, which was consistent with the relevant re- stop-hole repair group and the CFRP repair group were
search results [5]. By contrast, the fatigue strength of the significantly higher than category A of AASHTO, indicating
specimens is slightly increased when strengthened by high- that the use of high-strength bolts and high-modulus CFRP
strength bolts and high-modulus CFRP strips, respectively, strips on the stop-hole method could possess excellent fa-
except for those test specimens that failed early. Nonetheless, tigue resistance. Additionally, the fatigue strengths of two
they were still higher than the specimens repaired by only repaired specimen types were quite close; thus, the
Advances in Civil Engineering 13

160 160 160

140 140 140
Crack length (mm)

Crack length (mm)

Crack length (mm)

120 120 120
100 100 100
80 80 80
60 60 60
40 40 40
20 20 20
0 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50 0 50 100 150 200
Number of cycles (104) Number of cycles (104) Number of cycles (104)
Specimen 1-1 Specimen 2-1 Specimen 3-1
Specimen 1-2 Specimen 2-2 Specimen 3-2
Specimen 1-3 Specimen 2-3 Specimen 3-3
(a) (b) (c)

Figure 21: The curve of crack propagation. (a) Group 1. (b) Group 2. (c) Group 3.

1000
steel plates. The following conclusions can be drawn based
on the limited numerical and experimental data:
(1) The finite element results showed that the larger the
hole diameter, the smaller the stress concentration
factor (Kt) and fatigue notch coefficient (Kf ) by drilling
lgΔσR (MPa)

holes. But new stress concentration point originated

Premature from the edge of hole. Considering the overweakening
debonding Washer
100 slippage of the section rigidity, the hole diameter of 14 mm was
of CFRP
proposed here. The addition of high-strength bolts and
high-modulus CFRP strips, respectively, could effec-
tively reduce the stress concentration of the hole edge
to delay the crack initiation.
(2) The failure mode of the unrepaired specimens is
characterized by the fracture propagated from the
104 105 106 107 108 crack tip, while the fatigue source of specimens
lgN strengthened solely by stop-hole method originated
Stop-hole method from the edge of hole where stress concentrated. In
High-strength bolt stop-hole method terms of the high-strength bolt repair method, the
CFRP strips repair method gaskets and nuts suffered from fatigue cracking
Eurocode EN1993-1-9 Fatigue (125MPa) under the action of friction due to the cumulative
Eurocode EN1993-1-9 Fatigue (140MPa) damage. As noted for the CFRP-strengthened
Fatigue Design Guidelines for Steel Bridges, Japan specimens, the typical debonding failure between
(category C) steel plates and CFRP can be found after a certain
AASHTO specifications, America (category A) number of fatigue cycles.
BS5400 specifications, Britain (category C)
(3) The fatigue behavior of cracked steel plates is sig-
Figure 22: Fatigue repair test results and S-N curves. nificantly improved by using different repairing
methods. Compared to the reference specimens,
fatigue life can be enhanced by more than 20 times by
appropriate reinforcement scheme can be selected according only using the stop-hole repairing method. In
to the different site conditions. comparison with the cracked steel plates strength-
ened solely with stop hole, the application of high-
6. Conclusion strength bolts and high-modulus CFRP strips can
prolong the fatigue life by 9 times and 8 times, re-
This paper focused on the comparative performance of spectively. Regarding the washer slipping and pre-
unrepaired and repaired specimens. First, finite element mature debonding of CFRP strips, they will reduce
models were established to analyze optimal repair param- the repairing efficiency and should be avoided during
eters on stress distribution of cracked steel plates. Then, a on-site application. Moreover, it should be noted
total of 12 specimens were designed and tested under the that the positive effectiveness of employing the high-
fatigue loading cycles. Various repairing methods have been strength bolts was slightly more than that of speci-
developed to investigate the fatigue improvement of cracked mens using the high-modulus CFRP strips.
14 Advances in Civil Engineering

(4) By comparing the experimental results with S-N curves [9] Y. Yao, B.-H. Ji, and Z.-Q. Fu, “Optimization of stop-hole
of given fatigue detail, the use of stop-hole repair alone parameters for cracks at diaphragm-to-rib weld in steel
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fectiveness of high-strength bolt stop-hole method and “Stress concentration at stop-drilled holes and additional holes,”
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slightly exceeded category A of AASHTO. [12] S. M. J. Razavi, M. R. Ayatollahi, C. Sommitsch, and C. Moser,
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[14] D. Uchida, “Fatigue strength evaluation of out-of-plane gusset
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Engineering & Shipbuilding Technology, vol. 190, pp. 45–53,
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. 2007, in Japanese.
[15] X.-L. Zhao and L. Zhang, “State-of-the-art review on FRP
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