Fatigue life prediction of welded components

Abstract Analytical models for predicting the fatigue life of welded components based on low-cycle-fatigue and fracture mechanics concepts are presented. Those factors that affect the fatigue behavior of weldments such as the mean stress, mean stress relaxation, cyclic hardening and softening are considered. The connection between the models and their application to fatigue life estimate is discussed in terms of an example on weld joint.