Prospect of High-performance Welded Steel Bridge

The development of several grades of high-performance steel (HPS) with yield strengths of the order of 480 to 690 MPa (even more) with improved weldability, toughness and corrosion resistance have changed the scenario of fabrication of welded steel bridges for highway and rail bridge constructions. The HPS possesses the optimum combination of properties required to build cost-effective structures that may be safe and durable throughout their service life. To employ the HPS with improved economy and structural safety and integrity it is necessary to persuade the innovation in steel bridge design over the existing practices. Today, for protection of bridges from adverse environmental impact the HPS having corrosion resistance greater than the commonly used A588 weathering steel is very much in demand for bridge construction. The currently available such steels are weldable but, under highly controlled process and inspection to ensure adequate quality stipulated for bridge construction. In this paper the advances in development of HPS for bridge construction, designing of bridges for weld fabrication, development of welding process, procedure and consumable including the inspection and acceptance criteria of the weld quality have been discussed in order to highlight the prospect of the high performance welded steel bridges.