TY - GEN A1 - Freymann, Konrad A1 - Schauer, Thomas A1 - Bleicher, Achim T1 - Lifetime extension for steel railway bridges using additional damping : a case study for an existing bridge T2 - IABSE Symposium 2025, Environmentally Friendly Technologies and Structures - Focusing on Sustainable Approaches, May 18-21, 2025, Tokyo, Japan N2 - Steel bridges as slender and highly articulated lightweight structures are exceedingly exposed to fatigue damage due to traffic. Especially railway traffic is causing significant stress variations, the material can only withstand a limited amplitude and number of stress cycles. This results in a reduced lifetime of the bridge. This paper gives an overview of the material behaviour of steel due to fatigue. The lifetime capacity of an existing bridge as reference is analysed according to the current state of technology based on a simplified FE-Model. Further, the potential for extending the lifespan by reducing the vibration cycles through additional damping is numerically investigated for the referred bridge. A possible direct correlation between fatigue-relevant stress and the remaining service life of the existing bridge is demonstrated. KW - Steel railway bridges KW - Steel fatigue KW - Damping KW - Lifetime extension KW - Young modulus Y1 - 2025 SN - 978-3-85748-206-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2749/tokyo.2025.1885 SP - 1885 EP - 1893 PB - International Association For Bridge And Structural Engineering (IABSE) CY - Zürich ER -