An alternative fatigue assessment is introduced for orthotropic highway bridge decks, based on fracture mechanics. Crack growth simulation is carried out by the numerical integration of the Paris formula, using K factors obtained from two-level cracked models of the bridge deck. Prior to the simulation, unit wheels are applied to the 3D-shell model of the deck, and the translations of characteristic points are transferred to the 2D plane strain or plane stress finite element sub-models of fatigue-sensitive areas. The K factor is computed by numerical extrapolation, introducing cracks in the sub-models. Fixed values of input parameters (initial- and critical crack length, crack growth rate data, and the error of K factor computation) are used for single simulations as well as parametric studies for sensitivity analysis. Reliability assessment is performed by repeated crack growth analysis, using histograms to generate input parameters by Monte-Carlo simulation at the start of each "virtual experiment".

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