Evaluation and Repair of Wrought Iron and - Purdue e-Pubs ...

126Keating (1984) stated that the splice plate detail was an adequate repair since thefatigue lives for these connections were comparable to the steel components. This wasbecause the crack growth was “arrested by the wrought iron stringers.” The crack wouldbegin propagating through the thickness of the wrought iron eyebar and then turn andpropagate along the length of the eyebar (in the direction of rolling). The stress beingapplied to the eyebar with the splice plate was then parallel to the crack growth, makingcrack propagation minimal and the fatigue life of the wrought iron higher. Even thoughthe fatigue life of the splice plate repair was very long, the pattern of the crack growthcreates the need to check for any type of block shear failure that might occur.The splice plate repair may be an adequate repair, but for aesthetic reasons, abetter method to shorten a loose eyebar is two remove a section from the eyebar and thendirectly weld the two pieces together using the welding procedure tested in this study.Tensile coupons that included a full-penetration butt welded joints were evaluated. It wasdetermined that weld detail and process utilized in preparing the tensile testing couponsprovided sufficient overall performance. The welded wrought iron tensile strength wasnot affected, but the ductility was slightly lower.It is recommended that a similar procedure and detail be utilized when shorteninga wrought iron eyebar. The welding procedure utilized in this study is outlined in detailin Appendix D. It is also recommended that, if possible, a welding procedurespecification (WPS) be developed and a sample of the repaired material be tested toensure proper performance when using the WPS.It is important to recognize the lack of ductility that may exist in a shortenedmember. Although, elastic shortening of a member will not typically reduce the ductilityof a member, additional shortening that induces plastic strain will reduce the ductility.This is due to the amount of overall plastic strain that is lost during the life of the memberwhen it is elongated. This phenomenon was prevalent during testing that was completedduring this study when comparing the wrought iron that had experienced visual damage