Fatigue resistance of weld ends

In many fields of engineering material fatigue coincides with fatigue of welded joints. In welded joints severe uncertainties exist with respect to both the very geometry of the critical notch as well as the material properties at the crack initiation site and its neighborhood. Therefore, a research project was performed which aimed at a separation of both influence factors: geometry and material. The project was focused at weld start and end points for which data on fatigue performance are especially rare.

Research highlightsWe have scanned the real geometry of weld ends. Notch stresses were calculated with 3D Finite element models of the scans. We created a standardised weld end geometry. The statistical size effect was taken into account.