A Methodology for Fatigue Reliability Assessment Considering Stress Range Distribution Truncation

Not all loads contribute to fatigue crack propagation in the welded detail of steel bridges when they are subjected to variable amplitude loading. For fatigue assessment, therefore, non-contributing stress cycles should be truncated. However, stress range truncation is not considered during typical fatigue reliability assessment. When applying the first order reliability method, stress range truncation occurs mismatch between the expected number of cycles to failure and the number of cycles obtained at the time of evaluation, because the expected number of cycles only counts the stress cycles that contribute to fatigue crack growth. Herein, we introduce a calibration factor to coordinate the expected number of cycles to failure to the equivalent value which includes both contributing and non-contributing stress cycles. The effectiveness of stress range truncation and the proposed calibration factor was validated via case studies.