Fatigue Life of Welded High-strength Steels under Gaussian Loads

Within the scope of the investigation of welded high-strength steels for application in crane structures, a Gaussian-like test spectrum is derived from an analysis of recorded load time histories. In addition to stress-controlled fatigue tests under constant amplitude loading, the test spectrum is used for the experimental investigation of MAG-welded butt joints and tubular sample components under variable amplitude loading. A linear damage accumulation using Palmgren-Miner-Elementary is conservative for a damage sum of D = 0.5. Application of the theoretical damage sum Dth = 1 results in a closer approximation of the Gaßner-curve. For further improvement of this approximation, a rotation of the calculated Gaßner-curve, i.e. a variable damage sum, is suggested for both butt joints and sample components.