Low cycle fatigue life assessment of welded high-strength structural steels based on nominal and local design concepts

The effective notch stress approach with rref = 1.00 mm and measured radii of post treated welds leads to a reliable fatigue assessment up to at least N = 5 · 103 cycles to failure, which confirms FAT 225. The stress averaging approach using the microstructural support increases the assessment quality. A similar assessment reliability for damage parameter Wöhler lines, derived from elastic-plastic FE-analysis, is achieved, if support effects are considered.