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In the framework of the fatigue assessment of welded components, several methods are available in design standards such as the nominal stress, hot-spot stress, notch stress and linear elastic fracture mechanics approaches. The present paper aims at comparing two advanced local approaches for the fatigue strength assessment of different welded joints made of steel. The first one is IBESS which is based on short crack fracture mechanics. The second one is the PSM which instead involves the strain energy density approach. Both methods will be briefly presented, and the fatigue life prediction results discussed. The results obtained for the joint geometries considered in this work show advantages and drawbacks of the approaches, which are thoroughly analysed as well.
The work presents the procedure developed within the German research project IBESS, which allows for the fracture mechanics-based prediction of the fatigue strength of welded joints under constant amplitude loading. Based on the experimental observations of the crucial failure mechanisms, the approach focuses on the short crack propagation, where elastic-plastic fracture mechanics and the build-up of closure effects must be considered as well as the variability of the local geometry at the weld toe and the modelling of multiple crack interaction. Analytical solutions are provided for the approximation of the through-thickness stress profiles at the weld toe and for the determination of the crack driving force in the form of a plasticity-corrected stress intensity factor range ∆K_p. Proposals for the determination of the initial crack size and the crack closure factor are also included.
The approach is validated against a large number of experimental data, which comprises fatigue tests on individual cracks monitored by heat tinting and beach-marking techniques, as well as stress life curves. Three kinds of welded joints, two steels of significant different strengths and three stress ratios are considered. The results show that the procedure provides good estimations of the statistical distribution of the fatigue strength of welded joints both for the finite and infinite life regime. Furthermore, the predictions are compared with available benchmark data for structural steels.
The new standard ‘ISO 17636-2:2013: Non-destructive testing of welds — Radiographic testing — Part 2: X- and gamma-ray techniques with digital detectors’, defines the practice for radiographic inspection of welded pipes for manufacturing and in-service inspection. It is applied in Europe for inspections of pipe welds in nuclear power plants as well as in chemical plants and allows a faster inspection with digital detector arrays (DDA) than with film. Nevertheless, it does not allow the evaluation of the depth and shape of volumetric and planar indications. In 2001 a planar tomography scanner, TomoCAR, was introduced for mechanized radiographic testing (RT) inspection and non-destructive measurement of cross sections. The project TomoWELD is based on a new concept of the scan geometry, an enhanced GPU based reconstruction, and the application of a new generation of photon counting DDAs based on CdTe crystal CMOS hybrids. The new detector permits the selection of energy thresholds to obtain an optimum energy range and reduction of the influence of scattered radiation. The concept and first measurements are presented. Flaw depth and shape of volumetric and planar irregularities can be determined.
The results reported in this research study are part of a larger EU RFCS (Research Fund for Coal and Steel) project where the aim is to study the fatigue behavior of improved welds in high strength steels by utilizing different improvement techniques. In this particular study LTT (Low Transformation Temperature) weld filler material have been investigated and their possibility to improve the fatigue strength. The characteristic of these filler material is that they undergo phase transformation at temperature close to room temperature which will reduce the tensile residual stress in the weld and in some cases result in compressive residual stresses. Two different LTT alloy compositions have been developed, with different Ms (Martensite Start) temperatures in order to study the amount of tensile/compressive residual stresses produced by these wires. Welding residual stress measurements were carried out by X-ray diffraction technique. Plates with welded longitudinal attachments were fabricated in 700 MPa and 960 MPa steel grades using different LTT filler materials. These specimens were fatigue tested in constant and variable amplitude loading and the fatigue test results were compared with results from specimen welded with conventional weld filler material.