ERMUEDUNGSVERHALTEN VON BRUECKEN AUS SCHWEISSEISEN.

The fatigue behavior of wrought iron was investigated by testing small speciments - unnotched, drilled and riveted - taken out of mildly preloaded, hundred-year old actual bridge components. The data obtained served as a basis for the new code of the German Federal Railways DS 804/6 dealing with the reassessment of existing structures. A comparison with former Dutch and British experimental results was also performed. In spite of the characteristic feature of the material, a satisfactory level of fatigue strength is achieved. The study shows that wrought iron, in spite of its age and the specific structure of the material, possesses relatively favorable fatigue strength properties and that parts made out of it can continue to be used provided that the residual service life is ensured.