Fatigue Life Evaluation Based on Welding Residual Stress Relaxation and Notch Strain Approach for Cruciform Welded Joint

용접잔류응력 이완 및 노치변형률법을 적용한 십자형 필렛용접 이음부의 피로수명 평가

The fatigue strength of welded joint is influenced by the welding residual stress which is relaxed depending on local stress distributed in vicinity of stress raisers, eg. under cut, overlap and blow hole. To evaluate its fatigue life the geometry of the stress raisers and the welding residual stress should be taken into account. The several methods based on notch strain approach have been proposed in order to consider the two factors above mentioned. These methods, however, have shown considerable differences between analytical and experimental results. It is due to the fact that the amount of the relaxed welding residual stress evaluated by the cyclic stress-strain relationship do not correspond with that occurred in reality. In this paper the residual stress relaxation model based on experimental results was used in order to reduce the discrepancy of the estimated amount of the relaxed welding residual stress. Under an assumption of the superimposition of the relaxed welding residual stress and the local stress, a modified notch strain approach was proposed and verified to the cruciform welded joint.