Eurocode 9 to estimate the fatigue life of friction stir welded aluminium panels

Eurocode 9 is a standard that covers the design of building and engineering structures made from wrought and cast aluminium alloys. A part of the Eurocode 9 handles the design of aluminium structures susceptible to fatigue. Eurocode 9 has data for aluminium alloys and welded structures for conventional welding methods (fusion welding) except for friction stir welding processes. The present study compares fatigue test results from friction stir welded joints with fatigue curves of traditional fusion welded joints which are presented in Eurocode 9. The results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data and FEM predictions. This suggests that Eurocode 9 can be used for estimating the fatigue strength of friction stir welded joints.

► Fatigue properties of friction stir welded hollow aluminium panels were investigated.
► Fatigue strength of the base metal and friction stir welded joints could be predicted using Eurocode 9.
► Eurocode 9 predictions are within 8–15% of the experimental results.