Effect of weld geometry on the fatigue life of non-load-carrying fillet welded cruciform joints

In the present study, the effect of weld geometry on the fatigue life of non-load-carrying fillet welded cruciform joints was experimentally investigated. The weld geometry of the cruciform specimens was intentionally varied, and fatigue tests were carried out on various weld geometry configurations. The configurations included weld flank angle, weld toe radius and weld throat thickness. Constant amplitude fatigue tests with stress ratio, R = 0 were carried out using 250 kN servo-hydraulic MTS universal testing machine with a frequency of 5 Hz. From the experimental results, correlation between the weld geometry and the fatigue life of non-load-carrying fillet welded cruciform joints was analyzed in detail.