The Effect of Discontinuities on the Fatigue Behavior of Transverse Butt Welds in Steel

Bowman, M.D.; Munse, W.H.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14098 Copy

Description

Title

The Effect of Discontinuities on the Fatigue Behavior of Transverse Butt Welds in Steel

Author(s)

• Bowman, M.D.
• Munse, W.H.

Issue Date

1981-04

Keyword(s)

• Fatigue
• Butt welds
• Residual stress
• Steel

Abstract

The primary objectives of this study were to identify and evaluate the variables that influence the fatigue behavior of transverse butt welded steel members containing various weld discontinuities, and to formulate fatigue based weld quality rating crite ia. Mathematical models for evaluating the fatigue strength of welds containing discontinuities have been developed from empirical fatigue relationships. Empirical relationships for welds with nonplanar discontinuities are used to relate fatigue strength zones to known discontinuity severities; welds containing planar discontinuities are modeled by partitioning the fatigue life into initiation and propagation phases for given discontinuity severities. An experimental program was conducted to examine the accuracy of the mathematical models. Fatigue tests were conducted on notched mild steel plain plate specimens, welded mild steel and quenched and tempered steel.specimens containing artificial discontinuities, and quenched and tempered transverse butt-welded steel specimens containing slag inclusions. Strain relaxation tests were conducted also to determine the magnitude and distribution of residual stresses in the quenched and tempered steel welds. A simple-to-use method is suggested to relate weld fabrication quality to the reduction in mean fatigue strength of a sound weldment. The recommendations are formulated from fatigue strength rating curves which relate predicted fatigue strength~ for welds containing discontinuities to mean fatigue strengths of sound welds. Use of the suggested weld fabrication quality levels provides a simple means of assessing the effect of different types of discontinuities on the weldment fatigue strength.

Publisher

University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station. College of Engineering. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Civil Engineering Studies SRS-491

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14098

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

• State of Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Highways
• U.S. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• David W. Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center. The U.S. Navy

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