• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.87-92
• /
• 2008

In the load-carrying fillet weldments, which are common in ship structures, fatigue cracks can occur at the weld root, in addition to the weld toe. In particular, fatigue cracks originating from the weld root are difficult to detect and cause a significant reduction in the fatigue strength of a weldment. Therefore, it is important to note the fatigue failure mode of load-carrying fillet weldment. In this study, a series of fatigue test was carried out for the fatigue strength evaluation of longi-web connections that are typical kinds of the load-carrying fillet weldment.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.43 no.4 s.148
• /
• pp.476-483
• /
• 2006

Fatigue strength assessments with two types of load carrying fillet weldment under out-of-plane bending load have been carried out by using both hot spot stress and structural stress methods. In this study, a derivation for the structural stress method using shell element models is discussed in detail. Finite element analysis using shell element models have been performed for the assessment of fatigue strength. As a result of the fatigue strength evaluation for load carrying transverse fillet weldment, hot spot stress method is found to be consistent with structural stress method and measurement. Hot spot stress, however, estimated for the load carrying longitudinal fillet weldment exhibit large variation with respect to mesh size and element type while the calculated structural stress for the longitudinal fillet weldment is relatively independent of mesh size. On the other hand, drawbacks and doubts associated with applying the structural stress method such as the guidance of virtual node method have been discussed.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2000.04a
• /
• pp.256-259
• /
• 2000

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.27-33
• /
• 2006

Structural stress approach is well known as a mesh-size insensitive fatigue assessment method by using finite element analyses. It is, however, difficult to estimate the structural stress (SS) at weld end points due to stress singularities when shell elements are used. In this study, fatigue evaluations with longitudinal load carrying box fillet weldment under out-of-plane bending load have been performed by using virtual node method (VNM) in order to avoid the problem, which is called the weld end effect. Various combinations of virtual node parameters, such as reference point and virtual node locations, are investigated for the estimation of proper structural stress values applying VNM in a systematic manner. The appropriate guidance of virtual node parameter has been offered for the fillet weldment considered in the study. The structural stress values obtained by VNM have also been validated by comparing the result with finite element model including weld bead. Moreover, the fatigue strength of the fillet weldment based on the equivalent structural stress is shown to be consistent with the master S-N curve.