FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF WELDED JOINTS—A RE‐ASSESSMENT

— Fatigue life prediction of welded joints needs an accurate and exhaustive theoretical Fracture Mechanics characterization of weld toe crack propagation. The method proposed by Albrecht et al. leads rapidly to accurate solutions of the LEFM δK-parameter. However, non-LEFM short crack behavior within the notch (weld toe) plastic zone must be taken into account. Available information on notch fatigue is surveyed, and practical cases where short crack growth is likely to occur are identified. Based on an elastoplastic finite element analysis, the LEFM validity limits and errors resulting from the misuse of LEFM in fatigue life prediction are quantified.

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