Chapter 8: Factors Influencing Weldment Fatigue^[1]

This article is intended to help engineers understand why the fatigue behavior of weldments can be such a confusing and seemingly contradictory topic and hopefully to clarify this complex subject. It first reexamines the factors influencing the fatigue behavior of an individual weldment using extensive experimental data and a computer model that simulates the fatigue resistance of weldments. Next, the process of fatigue in weldments is discussed in general terms, and the service conditions that favor long crack growth and the conditions that favor crack nucleation are contrasted. The article then presents experimental data that show the effect of weldment geometry on fatigue resistance. Several useful geometry classification systems are compared. Finally, a computer model is employed to investigate the behavior of two hypothetical weldments: a discontinuity-containing ("Nominal") weldment and a discontinuity-free ("Ideal") weldment.