Comparative fatigue assessment of soft toe and nested bracket welded aluminium structures

This study investigated the fatigue performance of two different bracket connections for use in high-speed ocean craft. Constant amplitude, cyclic tests revealed that weld quality within the curved or nested insert has a profound effect upon the fatigue behaviour. Under severe conditions, the loss in fatigue performance due to poor weld quality may override the gain achievable by more optimal bracket designs. Under the condition of a good quality butt weld with deep penetration, the nested bracket has an improved fatigue performance when compared to the traditionally used soft toe bracket.