EVENT DETAIL

Robert J. Connor, PhD, Purdue University

Robert J. Connor is a Professor of Civil Engineering and is Director of the S-BRITE Center at Purdue University. Dr. Connor has been working in the area of fatigue, fracture, and other performance and durability issues related to steel bridges for over 25 years. He has published articles in conference proceedings and technical journals, mostly related to fatigue and fracture issues in steel structures, field inspection, and failure investigations. Dr. Connor has been the principal investigator on a number of NCHRP Projects.

There has been considerable research and interest in the topic of fracture-critical members (FCMs) during the past decade. As a result, the entire concept of what constitutes a FCM is being revisited and many longstanding ideas and opinions related to this classification of members is being shown to be overly conservative. After years of research, new stand-alone AASHTO-ready guide specifications that give codified direction on how to perform 3D system analysis to verify system redundancy, as well as guide specifications to evaluate internal member-level redundancy of mechanically-fastened built-up members, have now been developed and adopted by AASHTO. This presentation presents background to the current views of FCMs and suggestions about how to move forward.