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

54After the initial test was completed, the sample was then tested until failure. Thiswas done with the amount of stroke movement in the MTS machine being controlled.This means that the amount of strain placed on the sample was controlled rather than theamount of load that was placed on the sample. The testing coupon was first pulled at arate of 1/32 inch per minute until after the yielding, and was then stretched 1/8 inch perminute in the plastic region until failure. As in the initial test, the readings from the straingages, extensometer, load cell and stroke control were recorded using the Strain Smartsoftware. Once the test was completed, measurements were taken of the eye hole using amicrometer parallel and perpendicular to the direction of loading. This was done todetermine the amount of elongation of the hole in the connection.From the initial test, the data collected were the linear strains that occurred duringthe elastic testing. The strains that occurred for all ten gages were then depicted on thesame plot so that they could be compared to each other. From this plot it can be seenwhere the stresses are greater on the eye connection. A plot of the strains that occurred atthe various strain gages for one eyebar connection test can be seen in Figure 3.24. Thisdata was then compared to the results generated from the ANSYS computer model of theeye connection. The second test to full failure was completed to see if the connectionwould fail in the eye detail or in the shank.3.9 Eyebar Connection Testing with Filler WeldA common problem that occurs when repairing historic iron truss bridges isexcessive corrosion of these eyebar end connections. Often it is too costly to replace theentire eyebar, so a less expensive repair method is preferred. Therefore, along withinvestigating the behavior of a typical eyebar end connection, the behavior of a damagedand repaired eyebar end connection was also investigated. One repair method that wasinvestigated during this study was filling the corroded area of the eyebar with weldmaterial to reduce the loss of section. Two eyebar end connections were tested in tension