• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2003

Fatigue behaviour of partially penetrated butt-welded joints in high strength steel plates, in which crack-like structural defect, i.e. lack of penetration(LOP), is inevitably introduced during welding processes, was investigated. Fatigue lives of two types of welded joints, namely X-grooved and K-grooved joints, were experimentally determined first. Observed fatigue crack propagation behaviours of the partially penetrated butt-welds were interpreted through considering 3-dimensional semi-elliptical crack shape in front of the LOP. Based on such interpretation, a fracture mechanical method to estimate stress intensity factors at the crack tip was proposed. Since the fatigue lift of the partially penetrated butt-welds was strongly influenced by the ratio of size of the LOP to thickness, D/t, the D/t was used as a main parameter to calculate the fatigue lift by using the proposed method. Comparison of the fatigue lift obtained experimentally and analytically agreed well with each other. Hence it is suggested that the method used in this work to predict fatigue lift of the partially penetrated butt-welds can be applied to real cases with improved lift-prediction capability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.10 no.3 s.36
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• pp.423-435
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• 1998

In this paper fatigue strength reduction of butt weld with penetration defect, which can be seen frequently in the steel bridge, was assessed quantitatively. S-N curves were derived and investigated through the constant amplitude fatigue test of fully or partially penetrated welded specimen made of SWS490 steel. The fracture mechanical method was applied in order to calculate the remaining fatigue life of the partially penetrated butt welds. The fatigue limit of the fully penetrated butt welds was higher than that of category A in AASHTO's fatigue design curves, and the slope of S-N curves with 5.57 was stiffer than that of other result for welded part generally accepted as 3. The fatigue strength of the partially Penetrated butt weld was strongly influenced by the size of lack of penetration, D. It decreased drastically with increasing D from 3.9 to 14.7mm. Fracture behaviour of the partially penetrated butt weld is able to be explained obviously from the beach mark test that a semi-elliptical surface crack with small a/c ratio initiates at a internal weld root and propagates through the weld metal. To estimate the fatigue life of the partially penetrated butt weld with fracture mechanics, stress intensity factors K of 3-dimensional semi-elliptical crack were calculated by appling finite elements method and fracture mechanics parameters such as C and m were derived through the fatigue test of CT-specimen. As a result, the fatigue lives obtained by using the fracture mechanical method agreed well with the experimental results. The results were applied to Sung-Su bridge collapsed due to penetration defects in butt weld of vertical member.