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Fatigue Life Estimation of Critical Railway Bridges in Kelani Vally line Sri
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FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF CRITICAL RAILWAY BRIDGES

IN KELANI VALLY LINE SRI LANKA
D. D. K. Chathuranga1, T. E. H. Karunarathna1, H. C. Karannagoda1, R.D.D.N.K.
Premarathne2 and P.A.K. Karunananda1*
1TheOpen University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
2The Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka
*Correspondence E-mail: pakar@ou.ac.lk, TP: +94718385810

Abstract: Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) has 1180 number of steel bridges in its 7 number of railway
lines. Among them, Kelani valley (KV) line is an important route with a length of nearly 55 km
linking Colombo to Awissawella. The government of Sri Lanka has proposed to develop and
extend the KV line to Hambantota via Ratnapura and Embilipitiya. In order to implement these
proposals, SLR should be able to operate the M-class heavy engines on KV track as well and
minimize the travel time. KV line steel bridges were designed according to obsolete design
codes and have to be checked with new codes with increasing new railway traffic. This study
starts from basic condition assessment and runs up to developing detailed numerical model and
at the end fatigue lives of critical bridges are evaluated. KV line consists of 42 steel bridges
which include truss, plate girders and beam bridges. All of these 42 bridges were visually
inspected and their defects were identified and recorded. Most of bridges had been deteriorated
due to corrosion and other related deterioration processes. Out of these bridges, two bridges in
critical condition were found. Those two bridges are Narahenpita truss bridge and Arukwatta
truss bridge. ANSYS software was used to develop 3D finite element models of these two
bridges. The fatigue lives of these two critical bridge members were evaluated by using the
Miner’s rule and S-N curve. It was obtained that remained fatigue life of first bridge is 69 years
and the other bridge is more than 100 years.
Keywords: Steel bridges; High cycle fatigue; Miner’s rule; Fatigue life

1. Introduction structural capacity and possible remedial work

Steel bridge construction was initiated in the
United Kingdom in 1776 and later on was
introduced and immensely used in railways in
all around the world. Most of railway steel
bridges which are very old and have many
problems due to inadequate maintenance
system or need to increase its capacity to carry
higher loads (Rathnayaka and Dissanayake,
2011). These were designed for live loads and
service conditions that have severely changed
time. Railway authorities have to use necessary
steps to get the bridge condition assessed to
increased axle loads and traffic density. The
condition assessment is to determine the
residual structural strength of the bridge and
discover the strengthening measures to be
taken for safe performance. It provides
information regarding the intensity and extent
of observed defects. These defects and possible
deterioration processes were the cause which
has strong impact on the safety and service life
of structures. Furthermore, this information
forms the basis for estimating the residual
that needs to be undertaken (Kishen and
Ramaswamy, 2010).
In most of the countries, the basic annual
inspections are mainly based on visual
inspections from underneath a bridge. Often,
internal conditions or beginning of degradation
processes inside the quite well appearing
structure cannot be detected early enough.
Inspections refined on contact with distance are
usually made once in five to ten years (Olofsson
et al., 2007). But condition assessment had done
after accidental situations such as overloading
or partial collapse of bridges due to floods,
landslide, cyclones, earthquakes, bomb blasts,
and traffic accidents.
For steel railway bridges, fatigue is the main
reason for a limited service life. The life
prediction of bridges is to improve the fatigue
life prediction by reducing the uncertainties in
the traffic load and finally attain a longer
theoretical service life of the bridge (Leander,
2010). The economical incentive alone, of
increasing the service life of a bridge might be
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reason enough to invest in a thorough Narrow Gauge trains were very slow and were
assessment. soon out of fashion with quicker motor
transport options from the mid 1930’s. As a
Sri Lanka has broad gauge railway with a
result the Avissawella –Yatiyantota stretch was
width of 5’6’’. The Kelani Valley Railway,
closed in 1942. In August 1974 a government
popularly known as the KV line, holds a unique
decision was taken to close the line to
place in the 115-year long history of the Sri
passenger traffic beyond Homagama from 1
Lanka Railways. As a safe and cheap means of
January 1975 and close the [whole KV] line to
transport, the KV line played an important role
goods traffic from 1 January 1976. The
in the socio-economic progress of the country.
suburban service was indeed cut back to
In Sri Lanka, a railway bridge is defined to have
Homagama in 1975 (but on 15 April rather than
a span more than 10’-0” in length. Presently, Sri
1 January). But the suburban service was
Lankan railways have about 1180 steel bridges,
reinstated beyond Homagama to Padukka in
out of these bridges 42 own to the KV line. At
1977 and to its present terminus at Avissawella
the inception of the track it was designed to
in 1978. However the complete line was not
carry a maximum axle load of 15 tons and at
closed to goods traffic. The middle section
present the department operates diesel multiple
between Avissawella and Ratnapura was open
units (DMUs) having an axle load of 18.5 tons.
until the end of 1976 but with no official
In order to implement these proposals the Sri
passenger service between these two points
Lanka Railway (SLR) should be able to operate
from 1972. The section of the line between
the M-class heavy engines on KV track as well
Ratnapura and Opanayake was closed in 1974.
and minimize the travel time. The bridges of
The Avissawella to Ratnapura section was
Kelani valley line need to be assessed to avoid
dismantled in 1977 and Ratnapura to
sudden bridge failures thus to ensure the safety
Opanayaka section was in 1976.
of users. Therefore, an accurate assessment of
the current condition and life prediction of In 1992, a project was started to convert the line
bridges are important to manage civil to broad gauge. The project was finally
engineering structures more efficiently. completed up to Avissawella (59 km) in 1996.
Avissawella is now the terminus of this railway
2. History of Kelani Vally (KV) Railway Line
line, with mixed gauge operation since 1992
The laying of narrow gauge railway network and broad gauge only from 1997 (David Hyatt,
commenced about 1900 from Maradana to 2007).
Yatiyantota as the original Kelani Valley
2.1 Steel Bridges in KV Line
Railway line. It was reached to Yatiyanthota in
1903 covering a distance of 77 km through In Sri Lanka, there are 1180 steel bridges in our
Baseline Road, Cotta Road, Manning Town, railways. Only 42 bridges of them or 3.6% of
Nugegoda, Nawinna, Pannipitiya, Kottawa, them were in the KV line. The bridges in KV
Homagama, Migoda, Padukka, Waga, line vary in the structural construction. They
Kosgama, Puwakpitiya, Avissawella, belong to the following types as shown in Table
Dehiowita and Karawanella. The line titled the 1.
Pelmadulla Extension (part of the Kelani Valley
Table 1 – Types of bridges in KV line
& Sabaragamuwa Light Railway) from
Avissawella reached Ratnapura in 1912 and Number of
Opanayaka in 1919 covering a total distance of Bridge Type bridges
142 km and lifting the line to 140 meters above
Universal Beam deck span 14
mean sea level. This narrow gauge line, with
their light weight steam locomotives was Longitudinal Trough span 8
initiated for transporting rubber and low-
country/mid-country grown tea as well as raw Plate girder semi through span 4

graphite from the Bogala Mine. In the early Lattice girder semi through span 5
days there was also high patronage of
passengers specially during the Adam’s Peak Plate girder with 'x'girder poket plate deck
pilgrim season. span 5
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Plate girder deck span
Plate girder deck with longitudinal timber
span
Total
3. Methodology
The methodology followed in this study is
summarized as follows,
1) Literature review of KV line bridges
 Published reports
 Personal discussions with SLR personnel
2) Conduct field visits to assess current
conditions of the bridges
 Measure current details
 Check overall and local condition such as
members and connections in detail and
understand level of corrosion.
3) Develop numerical models for considering
the details of condition assessment. (using
ANSYS software)
4) Determine remaining fatigue life of these
bridges considering present corrosion using
Miner’s rule.
 Identify critical members to determine the
remaining fatigue life.
 Obtain maximum stress variation of critical
members and number of cycles, generated
by the passage of train over the bridge.
 Determine the number of cycles that
members had been subjected (ni) using Sri
Lanka railway schedule time of present and
past rail traffic over the bridge.
 Determine the number of stress cycles (Ni)
that can be sustain at failure in a particular
stress level for the material by using S-N
curve.
 Determine the damage for critical members
according to the Miner’s rule.
 Identify the most critical damage member
out of these members.
 Evaluate the remaining fatigue life for the
most critical damage member.
5 5) Check the structural adequacy of the
bridges for expected future loading cases.
1 4. Numerical Modelling of Critical
Bridges
42
Visual inspection of all 42 bridges was carried
out and their present conditions were
determined. From this inspection, 8 numbers of
bridges were identified as critical bridges. In
this study, it was expected to estimate the
fatigue life of most critical bridges out of these
eight bridges. In that case, it was needed to
have a numerical model. Therefore, numerical
modeling of these bridges was made through
ANSYS software.
Out of all these bridges, the first span of bridge
number-6 and bridge number-21 were selected
as case studies since they were in
comparatively bad condition and these two
bridges were required immediate repair and
strengthening.
4.1 Modeling Details
Develop a suitable finite element model
3D finite element model of the bridge was
modeled using ANSYS software. The model
was considered as linear, elastic and isotropic.
In this software, the bridge was modeled using
beam elements (BEAM189). BEAM 189 is
suitable for analyzing slender to moderately
stubby/thick beam structures. BEAM189 has
six degrees of freedom at each node. These
include translations in the X, Y and Z directions
and rotations about the X, Y and Z directions.
This element is well suited for linear
applications.
Define sections
The selected bridge was consisted with
different types of elements such as top and
bottom chords, end boxes, cross girders, rail
girders, diagonal sets and sway bracings. There
were two types of sections used for modeling
which were standard sections from section
database and user defined equal sections.
During the conversion from narrow gauge to
broad gauge of KV line, cross girders and rail
girders were replaced by standard U-Beam
sections and the other elements were
unchanged which were constructed in colonial
period. Therefore standard UB sections were
used for cross girders and rail girders. All the
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other sections were not standard ones and they

were erected by using steel plates.
Rivet and support connections
In this case, all rivet connections of cross
girders with plate girders and bolt connections
of bottom chord with cross girders were
assumed as fully fixed. One of the two end
supports of the bridge was assumed as a pin
support and other one was assumed as a roller
support.
Assign corrosion level
One of great challenge in modeling is taking
corrosion in to account. During the field visit
corroded areas of bridge members, their
effective thicknesses and areas were taken.
According to these effective thicknesses and
areas, user defined sections were designed.
Assign loads
S12 Locomotive was selected to evaluate
maximum stresses on bridge members due to
the heaviest train class in this KV line at present
which has 4 numbers of 19 tons axels. In this
case, the model was evaluated for different
loading cases. The distance was taken as zero Figure 1:One load case (a) Side view: 22.8tons
when the 1st axel set was at 1st cross girder. per each arrow head (b) Plan view: 11.4tons per
There after, distences of 1st axel were taken each marked point
relative to the zero point covering all load
4.2 Finite element model of bridge no-6
cases. Due to the dynamic effect of moving
trains, the actual working load should be higher Bridge no-6 is located close to Colombo. Due to
than the static load. Therefore a dynamic factor the human activities, this bridge has
of 1.2 (Ranaweera et al., 2002) was used to deteriorated rapidly. This is one of two
multiply the static load to get the service load. spanned bridges in KV line and consisted with
The most critical member for fatigue failure a lattice girder bridge and a plate girder bridge.
was identified and their stress variations were Therefore, it was decided to model the lattice
also measured. Figure 1 shows how train load girder bridge for evaluate remaining fatigue
is applied to a truss bridge. life. It is consisted with 7 types of main
elements which are top & bottom chord, end
boxes, cross girders, rail girders, diagonal sets
and sway bracings. Finite element model and
3D view of model was shown by figure 2.
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RG7 - 7th Rail Girder

BC7 - 7th span of Bottom Chord
DTM5 - 5th Diagonal Tension Member
Results
To obtain maximum stress ranges generated by
the passage of trains over the bridge, 17 load
cases were introduced. Then, the stress ranges
of above mentioned critical members were
obtained. The map of maximum stresses is
given by Figure 4.

Figure 4: Map of maximum stresses of

Figure 2: (a) Finite element model of the bridge
(b) 3D view of the model
22.8 x 4 axel load was applied to evaluate
tensile stresses on these bridge members. For
each member types, the most critical member
for fatigue failure was identified and their
stress variations were obtained.
bridge no 6
Maximum stresses range of critical members
7th span of bottom chord was identified as the
most critical member of bridge no 6 and
maximum stresses range of BC7 was tabulated
as in Table 2.
Table 2 – Maximum stresses range of BC7
7th SPAN OF BOTTOM CHORD

MAXIMUM
LOAD CASE DISTANCE (m)
STRESS (Mpa)

1 0 3.472

2 2.6 12.08

3 10.4 33.92

4 13 63.68

5 15.34 67.6

6 17.68 85.6
Figure 3: Critical members in bridge no 6
7 20.02 77.12
Figure 3 shows the critical structural elements
of each member types. 8 22.36 71.92
CG2 - 2nd Cross Girder
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9 24.7 81.6

10 27.04 64.64

11 29.38 51.52

12 31.72 40.4

13 34.06 36.64

14 36.4 24.24

15 38.74 17.84

16 41.08 4.792

17 43.42 3.312

Figure 6: (a) Finite element model of the bridge

(b) 3D view of the model

Critical structural elements of each member

Figure 5: Variation of maximum stresses types were obtained by applying 22.8 x 4 axel
Maximum stress ranges of BC7 member is load. These critical members were shown by
shown in Figure 5. Figure 7.

4.3 Finite Element Model of Bridge no-21

Bridge number 21 is located between Padukka
and Arukwatta which has deteriorated due to
less maintenance. This is one of large single
spanned, lattice girder bridges in KV line. This
bridge was selected to model as the second
example. It is consisted with 7 types of main
elements which are top & bottom chord, end
boxes, cross girders, rail girders, diagonal sets
and sway bracings. Finite element model and
3D view of model was shown by Figure 6.
Figure 7: Critical members in bridge no 21
CG9 - 9th Cross Girder
RG5 - 5th Rail Girder
BC6 - 6th span of Bottom Chord
DTM2 - 2nd Diagonal Tension Member
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Results
14 load cases were introduced to obtain
maximum stress ranges generated by the
passage of train over the bridge. The map of
maximum stresses is given by figure 8.
Figure 8: Map of maximum stresses of bridg no
21
Maximum stresses range of critical members
6th span of bottom chord was identified as the
most critical member of bridge no 21 and
maximum stresses range of BC6 was tabulated
as in Table 3.
Table 3: Maximum stresses range of BC6
6th SPAN OF BOTTOM CHORD
MAXIMUM
LOAD DISTANCE
STRESS
CASE (m)
1 0
2 2.6
3 10.4
4 13
5 14.83
6 16.66
7 18.49
8 20.32
9 22.15
10 23.98
11 25.81
12 27.64 18
13 29.47 8.42
14 31.3 5.22
Figure 9: Variation of maximum stresses of BC6
5. Remaining Fatigue Life Estimation
Remaining fatigue life evaluation of the critical
members in each member set is discussed in
this section. Evaluations were specially based
on maximum stresses, which were determined
by the global analysis of whole structure.
Previous analytical models (section 3) are used
to evaluate maximum stresses and Miner’s rule
was used to obtain the remaining fatigue life in
bridges.
5.1 Determination of parameters for Miner’s
rule
(MPa)
To apply the Miner’s rule, it was essential to
determine the number of stress cycles that
10.34 material had been subjected (ni) and allowable
number of stress cycles, material can be
28
subjected (Ni). To obtain ni, it was necessary
68.7
maximum stress ranges of critical members,
generated by the passage of train over the
84.1 bridge. By using these stress ranges, it can be
obtained number of cycles when train is
61.4
moving on the bridge. To find the stress cycles
63.9 histories of the critical members, it was
necessary to obtained time tables of present and
86.6 past rail traffic over the bridge. Due to the used
types of trains were changed with age of the
63.6
bridge, the age was divided in to five periods as
58.9 shown in table 4. Also it was assumed that the
traffic sequence is almost constant during the
52.6 week of each period of age. UK railway
assessment code given design fatigue curve (S-
42.3
N curve) for wrought iron (Siriwardane et al.,
2007) was used to obtain Ni .
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Table 4: Train classes and their time period 5.2 Remaining Fatigue Life Estimation of
Bridge No-6

WEIGHT NO. OF MOVEMENTS To estimate the remaining fatigue life, graph of

CLASS
TIME
OF THE
OF THE damage verses time was plotted for the most
PERIOD ENGINE critical member which is bottom chord. Then
TRAIN
(TON) UP TO BEYOND the line was extended linearly until meets
PADUKKA PADUKKA
damage value at one. According to this point,
1902- failure year of the bridge was obtained
H1 - V2 34 5 5
1950
Table 6: Remaining fatigue life of critical
1950-
N1 - N2 45 8 8
elements
1974

1974- REMAINING
S6 - S7 54 11 8 TYPE OF THE MEMBER
1991 FATIGUE LIFE

1991-
S8 69 16 10 7th Span of Bottom Chord 69 Years
2012

S8 69 13 6 7th Rail Girder

2012-
2015 2nd Cross Girder More than100 years
S12 76 6 6

5th Tension Diagonal Set

Introduction of equivalent factor
The model was loaded according to S12 engine
weight and maximum stress ranges were
obtained, corresponding to this engine weight.
Since 1901, this bridge is subjected to different
types of engine weights. All these weights are
contributed to the number of cycles that bridge
is subjected. Therefore, it was necessary to
obtained equivalent factor for each weight
classes (Table 5). Equivalent factors were used
to evaluate maximum and minimum stresses of
cycle of other weight classes corresponding to
the S12 engine weight.
Table 5: Equivalent factors for different weight
classes
WEIGHT
CLASS OF THE OF THE EQUIVALENT
TRAIN ENGINE FACTOR
(TON)
5.3 Fatigue life estimation for bridge no 21
Remaining fatigue life evaluation of the critical
members in each member set was discussed in
this section. Evaluations were carried out on
maximum stresses, which were obtained by
applying 15 different load cases. FEM which
was mentioned in section 3 was used to
evaluate maximum stresses and Miner’s rule
was used to obtain remaining fatigue life of the
bridge no 21 as shown in Table 5.
5.4 Remaining Fatigue Life Estimation of
Bridge No-21
Table 7 – Remaining fatigue life of critical
elements
REMAINING
TYPE OF THE MEMBER
FATIGUE LIFE

H1 - V2 34 0.45
6th Span of Bottom Chord

N1 - N2 45 0.59
5th Rail Girder
More than100
S6 - S7 54 0.71 years
9th Cross Girder

S8 69 0.91
2nd Tension Diagonal Set

S12 76 1

5.5 Future fatigue life estimation

This procedure can be carried with a suitable
time period preferably every 4 years. Then can
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understand their fatigue life and can identify Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012,
the most critical member. Then these members India
can be replaced with new members.
Leander J, (2010),“Improving a bridge fatigue life
6. Conclusions prediction by monitoring”
The study presented here is an effort that aims Ranaweera M.P, Abruwan H, Herath K.R.B,
to evaluate the fatigue life of steel railway Maharoof A.L.M, Siriwardane S.A.S.C,
bridges in KV line which were in comparatively Adasooriya A.M.N.D (2002), Assessement
bad condition. A condition assessment needs to of Kelani railway bridge over Kelani river,
be done up to investigate deteriorated bridges. Engineering design centre, University of
According to our first objective, condition of all Peradeniya, sri Lanka
42 bridges was assessed and then identified
Rathnayaka R.M.S.U.P, Dissanayake P.B.R.
their present conditions. During field visits, 8
(2011),”Methodology for Condition
numbers of bridges were identified having the
Assessment and Retrofitting of Railway
critical damages. Out of all these bridges, the
Bridges” Faculty of Engineering,
first span of bridge no.06 and bridge no 21 were
University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
selected to develop finite element models by
considering existing section details to evaluate Siriwardane S, Ohga M, Dissanayake R,
their remaining fatigue life which are required Taniwakia K,” Application of new damage
immediate repair and strengthening while indicator-based sequential law for remaining
fulfilling the second objective of this study. fatigue life estimation of railway bridges”
Third objective was achieved during the Dept. of Civil and Environmental
evaluation of fatigue lives of these two bridges. engineering, Ehime University, Japan
Due to fatigue, under current loadings, speeds Wickramaratne B.W.C.U, Wijedasa O.K.R,
and frequencies of operation, the lowest Zairek A.K, (2014),“Design of a new railway
remaining life found for the 7th span of bottom bridge over Diyawannawa oya in
chord of bridge no.06 is 69 years and remaining Narahenpita” Faculty of Engineering
life for the 6th span of bottom chord of bridge Technology, Open University of Sri Lanka
no.21 is more than hundred years. Thus it may
be concluded that the girder of bridge no.06 can
be used for another 69 years provided that the
speed, frequency, and weight of the trains are
not increased. If proper maintenance work is
carried out and critical members are replaced
with new members with longer life, the bridge
will be able to provide further service.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to acknowledge the
support given by the officials of SLR. Also,
the help given by Eng. Upul
Wickramarathna is highly appreciated.
References
Bien J, Elfgren L, Olofsson J, (2007), “Sustainable
bridges assessment for future traffic demands
and longer lives”
David Hyatt (2007),”Railways of Sri Lanka
supplement part I”
Kishen J. M. C, Ramaswamy A, (2010),
“Cracking analysis of brick masonry arch
bridge” Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian

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