Simulation der Lebensdauer von Stahltragwerken unter Einbeziehung bruchmechanischer Konzepte

Simulation of the service life of steel constructions including fracture-mechanics concepts.

The assessment of the total service life cycle of steel constructions will become much more important by the increasing meaning of building preservation and building modernization. The main cause for failure of existing structural steel constructions under cyclic loading is material fatigue. Most steel constructions are failure tolerant. This behaviour can be considered for economic reasons by including the crack propagation phase into the assessment. This paper will present developed software tools and results of executed simulations of the crack propagation phase on real steel structures.