Overview of fatigue damage for composite structure (bridge deck)

Since steel-concrete composite structure has more advanced technical and economic indices than both steel and reinforced concrete structures, it is widely applied in engineering structures, especially in bridges in recent years. As bridges are subjected to fatigue loads of the vehicles frequently, thus it becomes more and more important to investigate fatigue mechanisms of composite structures, especially composite decks. In this paper, the basic concepts and principles of fatigue are briefly introduced, and then an overview of the fatigue performance for steel structure, reinforced concrete structure and steel-concrete composite structure is made. Finally, existing problems of fatigue for composite structures are discussed and the prospect in the future forecasted. The study shows that damage accumulation mechanism, damage identification and reliability of fatigue are investigated in emphasis in the future.