David Malschaert

Profile

David holds a Master's degree in Structural Engineering from TU Delft. His thesis focused in the apllication of Fracture Mechanics on Orthotropic Steel Decks. Currently, is working on a research project funded by Rijkswaterstaat and PRO Rail investigating the crack growth of physically short cracks in welded connections of steel bridges.

Research

David is currently working on a project investigating the crack growth of physically short cracks is investigated in welded connections of steel bridges. He follows a fracture mechanics approach and the influence of welding induced residual stresses is examined as well as the local weld geometry.

Partners: TNO TU Eindhoven, Rijkswaterstaat and PRO Rail

Steel bridges are exposed to cyclic loading and their fatigue design plays an important role in guaranteeing the structural safety. During fabrication it is unavoidable to have flaws in a structure. Even within fabrication tolerances, these flaws can have a significant impact on the service lifetime. Furthermore, cracks are often located where it can be an arduous task to measure or detect the crack. Therefore, it is important to model crack propagation behaviour correctly to reduce the amount of inspections. As various bridges are approaching the end of their fatigue life, an increased demand of public resources is needed. In order to reliably increase the fatigue life and/or inspections intervals, improved fatigue assessment is needed. The main problem that David will address is cracks growing from large weld imperfections, outside allowable tolerances. Plate dimensions and weld types typical for bottom flanges in existing steel bridges, built around 1960-1980, will be examined.

CIE5126-20: Fatigue