Abstract
A large number of old metallic bridges have complex riveted details that pose challenges during their fatigue assessment using detail-specific S-N curves. In this paper, the fatigue life prediction capability of a novel method, the Theory of Critical Distances (TCD), which relies on the fatigue properties of the plain material only is investigated through finite element analysis of riveted details obtained from the literature. Fatigue life predictions of both the TCD and the traditional S-N methods were compared with experimental data from literature to assess their predictive capabilities. Details analysed include a number of riveted built-up girders for which experimental results were available. The results of this study showed that the TCD method successfully predicted fatigue life within the scatter bands of constant amplitude experimental data. The critical hotspot locations identified by the TCD method were consistent with the fatigue damage initiation sites observed in the experiments.