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RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES

RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES
A. Ohta, Y. Maeda, N. Suzuki National Institute for Materials Science (Japan)

ABSTRACT
It is common to evaluate the fatigue strength of welded joints by testing simple specimens incorporating the weld detail of interest, usually at R = 0. However, such specimens do not usually contain significant residual stress, whereas yield-magnitude tensile residual stresses generally exist in real welded structures. As a result, the effective maximum stress in the fatigue loading is equal to yield, giving more severe loading than R = 0. Thus, unsafe estimates of fatigue lives may be obtained from small-scale specimens at R = 0. In this study, the technique of applying fatigue loading that cycles down from yield to simulate the effect of high tensile residual stress (max = y testing) was applied to non-load-carrying cruciform welded joints in 20 mm thick SM570Q steel. Comparative tests were performed on narrow specimens under max = y loading and wider specimens, fabricated to ensure that they did contain high tensile residual stress, under R = 0. The results were in good agreement, confirming that the fatigue performance of large-scale welded structures can be reproduced using the max = y test technique.

IIW-Thesaurus keywords: Fatigue strength; Residual stresses, Welded joints; Cruciform joints; Fillet welds; MMA welding; Nonload carrying; Fatigue tests; Lifetime; Computation; Weld toes; Carbon manganese steels; Influencing factors; Practical investigations.

1 INTRODUCTION
The fatigue strength of welded joints is usually evaluated by testing under an applied stress ratio of R = 0. However, high tensile residual stresses generally exist in real welded structures. Consequently, as is well known, the fatigue strength of large-scale welded members does not vary with the stress ratio [1, 2]. This insensitivity to stress ratio arises because of the presence of high tensile residual stress. A tensile residual stress has the effect of increasing the effective mean stress. Shakedown occurs easily in welded members, because the sum of the tensile residual stress and the applied stress exceeds the yield strength of material. As a result, the real maximum stress in a large-scale welded member becomes equal to the yield strength regardless of stress ratio. This condition corresponds to a high positive stress ratio and therefore represents more severe loading than R = 0. This is important in tests on small-scale specimens that do not contain high tensile residual stress since the resulting fatigue life may be over-estimated. In this study, the simulation of high tensile residual stress by cycling down from the fixed maximum stress equal to yield strength (max = y testing [3-6]) was applied to non-load-carrying cruciform welded joints [7]. The aim

was to investigate the possibility that, with this technique, the fatigue performance of large-scale structures could be reproduced using small-scale specimens. To this end, comparative tests were carried out on smallscale specimens under max = y loading and wider specimens designed and fabricated to ensure that they did contain high tensile residual stress under R = 0.

2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
The tests were performed on cruciform joint specimens consisting of plates with fillet welded transverse nonload-carrying attachments, as shown in Fig. 1 and 2. They were fabricated from 20 mm thick JIS SM570Q rolled steel plate. The chemical composition and

IIW-1581-02 (ex-doc. XIII-1921-02) recommended for publication by Commission XIII Fatigue of welded components and structures
Welding in the World, Vol. 46, n 11/12, 2002

Fig. 1. Welding sequence. (a) two passes welding, (b) three passes welding.

RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES

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Table 1. Chemical composition of materials.


Plate thickness (mm) 20 Element (wt%) C 0.12 Si 0.25 Mn 1.45 P 0.014 S 0.004 Ni 0.01 Cr 0.029 Mo 0.055 V 0.042 Cu 0.01 Al 0.023 Ceq1 0.39 PCM2 0.21

mechanical properties are given in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. The 0.2% proof strength reported in the mill sheet was 606 MPa. The non-load-carrying cruciform welded joints were made by manual arc welding with covered electrodes in the flat position. The welding sequence is shown in Fig. 1. The weld line was perpendicular to the rolling direction of the material. Details of test specimens are shown in Fig. 2. The joints containing high tensile residual stress (Fig. 2a) were made by the following procedure. The attachments were first welded in position with a gap approximately 70 mm long in the middle left unwelded. The welding sequence was as shown in Fig. 1a. After cooling down

to room temperature, the gap was gouged and then welded (referred to as the slit part in Fig. 2a) using the sequence in Fig. 1b. Finally, both edges were machined to make the specimen width 250 mm with the slit weld located at the middle width. The 40 and 10 mm wide specimens (Fig. 2b and c) were extracted from 1,500 mm wide panels welded with continuous fillet welds, without gaps, using the sequence shown in Fig. 1b. These were then machined into specimens with the required widths. The residual stress distributions along the width of the specimens and towards the weld toe were measured by mechanically cutting around strain gauge rosettes fixed to the specimen. The residual stress normal to the

(a) Joint containing residual stress (b) Joint of 40 mm width (c) Joint of 10 mm width Fig. 2. Fatigue specimens. Table 2. Mechanical properties of materials.
Plate thickness (mm) 20 Tensile properties1 Yield strength Tensile strength at 0.2% offset (MPa) (MPa) 606 669 Elongation (%) 35 Charpy absorbed energy2 (J) 302 Vickers hardness (HV 98N) 212

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RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES

weld, that is parallel to the loading direction to be used in the fatigue tests, was calculated by Eq. (1). E r = ( y + x ) (1) 1 2 The residual stress distribution through the thickness [8] was measured with strain gauges by gradual removal of surface layers, as shown in Fig. 3. Strain gauges were bonded at the location of the weld toe after removal of the weld (Fig. 3a), and the surface on the opposite side was gradually machined. From the relationship between the depth of cutting and the measured strain, the residual stresses were calculated according to Eq. (2). When the thickness was reduced by half, additional gauges were bonded to the machined surface (Fig. 3b), and Eq. (3) was used to determine the residual stresses.

1 = E 2 2 =
+ 2

3 1

{ t z z t z t z z } t z E { (t z) t / z z } z E t z){ z } z ( t z t t
2 d 3( ) d
z
0

Fig. 4. Comparison of loading patterns for R = 0 and max = y tests. ison. The waveform was sinusoidal and the test frequency was 10-50Hz in all tests.

( )2
z
0

(2)

2 d 3 4 d 2
t /2
0

{( 2) 2
0

}2

( )2

t /2

t/ 2

(3)

In these equations E is Youngs modulus, v is Poissons ratio, is the strain measured when the surface layer was cut to depth z, t is the original plate thickness, is the strain measured when the opposite side surface layer of the remaining half-plate thickness is cut to depth z and t/2 is the strain measured when the plate is cut to depth t/2. Axial load fatigue tests were performed in ambient air using various electro-hydraulic machines with capacities of 1.5MN, 1MN, 500kN, 400kN and 300kN. The loading patterns used were as illustrated in Fig. 4. In the usual test with R = 0, the minimum stress, min, is fixed at 0 while the maximum stress, max, depends on the stress range , such that max = . On the other hand, in the test simulating the presence of high tensile residual stress [3-6], max is kept constant at y while min depends on , such that min = y - . Both forms of loading were used in the tests on the narrower specimens (Fig. 2 b and c), while the wide specimens (Fig. 2a) were only tested with R = 0. Tests were also performed at R = 0 on base metal specimens, for compar-

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS


As expected, the specimens failed by fatigue cracking from a weld toe. Fig. 5 shows the fracture surface of one of the joints containing high tensile residual stress. Beach marks show that the fatigue crack initiated in the central part of the weld, where the slit weld was located. This part of the weld was made using the 3-pass procedure, as also used for the narrower specimens. Figures 6 to 9 show the residual stress distributions. Fig. 6 shows the distribution along the weld line, 5 mm away from weld toe; Fig. 7, the distribution towards weld toe; Fig. 8, the distribution through plate thickness on the weld toe section. Fig. 9 shows the estimated residual stress distribution through plate thickness at the weld toe in the middle of specimen width. These results confirmed that the joint fabricated to ensure the presence of residual stress did indeed contain tensile residual stresses of yield strength magnitude at the weld toe. Thus, this specimen contained the level of residual stress that exists in real large-scale

Fig. 3. Procedure of residual stress measurement across the plate thickness.

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Fig. 5. Fracture surface of one of the joints containing high tensile residual stress.

Fig. 8. Residual stress distribution through plate thickness in weld toe section.

(a) Joint containing residual stress (b) Joint of 40 mm width Fig. 6. Residual stress distribution along weld line 5 mm apart from weld toe.

(a) Joint containing residual stress (b) Joint of 40 mm width Fig. 7. Extrapolation of residual stress at weld toe after picking up 10 mm with bar from the middle width of specimen.

(a) Joint containing residual stress (b) Joint of 40 mm width Fig. 9. Estimated residual stress in weld toe section of middle width of specimen.

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RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES

welded structures. It was also found that the 40 mm wide specimens contained fairly high tensile residual stress, up to around one third yield, at the weld toe. Fig. 10 shows the fatigue test results obtained from the wide welded specimens containing residual stress and the base metal, both tested at R = 0. The bands in this figure represent the 90% confidence interval. The fatigue limit obtained by the small-sample staircase method with six specimens was 52 MPa, corresponding to an endurance of around 2 107 cycles. Fig. 11 shows the fatigue test results obtained from the narrower specimens. The 90% confidence intervals enclosing the results from the wide specimens containing high tensile residual stress, from Fig. 10, are also shown. It can be seen that the open data plots (results for max = y tests) for the small specimens are in good agreement with those obtained from the wider specimens. The fatigue limits for the small specimens from the max = y tests were also the same as that for the wide specimen (52 MPa). These results show that the max = y testing of small specimens is an effective method for obtaining S-N data that could serve as a basis for the design of large welded structures containing high tensile residual stresses. The solid data plots (results obtained at R = 0) in Fig. 11 are also in agreement with those from the wider speci-

mens, except near the fatigue limit. This means that the sum of the applied stress and the tensile residual stress exceeded the yield strength in the higher stress range region. The fatigue limits for the 40 mm and 10 mm wide specimens at R = 0 were 55 MPa and 65 MPa, respectively. Thus, a higher fatigue limit was obtained from the narrower specimens, which contained the smaller tensile residual stresses, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. This means that the maximum stress near the fatigue limit was slightly below the yield strength in the tests on the narrower specimens at R = 0. Consequently, similar estimates of the fatigue limit may be obtained from both the narrow specimens and the wider ones containing high tensile residual stress tested at a lower mean stress in the present welded joint design. However, this will not always be the case and max = y testing is considered to be a more reliable method for establishing the fatigue limit for a real structure. It may be noted from the present results that the technique does not produce overconservative values. Other support for the max = y test for determining the fatigue limit comes from previous studies [3-6, 9]. In particular, it was found that the reduction in the magnitude of the fatigue limit with increase in applied stress ratio extended to higher values than R = 0.5. Consequently, lower values were obtained from max = y tests if the corresponding stress ratio exceeded 0.5. The same was found in tests on low strength steels if the maximum applied stress under R = 0.5 exceeded yield. In other words, even tests at the relatively high stress ratio of R = 0.5 can give non-conservative estimates of the fatigue limit in the presence of very high tensile residual stress. In another case [4], it was shown that the fatigue limit obtained from welded specimens not containing high tensile residual stress tested at a small mean stress was high compared with that for a real welded structure (115 compared to 70 MPa). Thus, again, the max = y test provides safer and more realistic results. Referring back to the present results, it will be noted that the number of cycles corresponding to the fatigue limit was around 2 107 cycles. This results in a lower fatigue limit than one coincident with the more usual 510 106 cycles. The same was found previously for transverse butt welds tested with max = y [6]. Furthermore, max = y tests under random loading gave lives similar to those predicted by Miners rule when used in conjunction with the S-N curve for max = y constant amplitude test results [6]. This was true even for loading spectra in which most of the stress ranges were lower than the constant amplitude fatigue limit obtained with max = y. This suggests that the constant amplitude fatigue limit obtained with max = y is also applicable for random loading. This contrasts with the usual design approach of extrapolating the S-N curve beyond the fatigue limit at a shallower slope [10] to give a lower effective value. Thus, S-N curves produced either from specimens containing high tensile residual stress or using the max = y test technique may be suitable for direct application with Miners rule for cumulative damage calculations.

Fig. 10. Fatigue test results for joint containing residual stress.

Fig. 11. Fatigue test results for small specimens.

RESIDUAL STRESS EFFECT ON FATIGUE STRENGTH OF NON-LOAD-CARRYING CRUCIFORM WELDED JOINTS OF SM570Q STEEL FOR WELDED STRUCTURES

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4 CONCLUSION
Comparative fatigue tests were performed on transverse non-load carrying cruciform joints in three widths of 20 mm thick steel plate. The widest (250 mm) was specially designed to embody high tensile residual stress and they were tested with R = 0. The two narrower specimens (10 and 40 mm) with lower residual stresses in them were tested with max = y. The following conclusions were drawn: a) The test results were in good agreement, confirming that the max = y test technique simulates the effect of high tensile residual stresses in small-scale welded specimens. b) The same relatively low fatigue limit, corresponding to N = 2 107 cycles, was also obtained from all three types of specimen. c) However, additional tests on small specimens at R = 0 over-estimated the fatigue limit relevant to welded joints containing high tensile residual stress. d) The results complemented previous ones from other weld details obtained under both constant and variable amplitude loading in demonstrating the value of the max = y test as an effective method for producing safe S-N data from small specimens that are applicable in the design of large-scale welded structures.

REFERENCES
1. Fisher J.W., Fatigue Strength of Welded A514 Steel Beams, Fatigue of Welded Structures 1, The Welding Institute (1971), 135-148. 2. Gurney T.R. and Maddox S.J., A Re-Analysis of Fatigue Data for Welded Joint in Steel, Welding Research International 3 (1973), 1-54. 3. Ohta A., Maeda Y., Mawari T., Nishijima S. and Nakamura H., Fatigue Strength Evaluation of Welded joints Containing High Tensile Residual Stresses, Int.J. Fatigue 8 (1986), 147-150. 4. Nakamura H., Nishijima S., Ohta A., Maeda Y., Uchino K., Kohno T., Toyomasu K. and Suya I., A Method for Obtaining Conservative S-N data for Welded Structures, J. Testing & Evaluation 16 (1988), 280-285. 5. Ohta A., Mawari T. and Suzuki N., Evaluation of Effect of Plate Thickness on Fatigue Strength of butt Welded joints by a Test Maintaining Maximum Stress at yield Strength, Engng. Fracture Mech. 37 (1990), 987-993. 6. Ohta A., Maeda Y. and Suzuki N., Fatigue Strength of Butt-Welded Joints under Constant Maximum Stress and Random Minimum Stress Conditions, Fatigue Fracture Engineering Materials Structures 19 (1996), 265-275. 7. Data Sheet on Fatigue Properties of Non-Load-Carrying Cruciform Welded Joints of SM570Q Rolled Steel for Welded Structure Effect of Residual Stress 90 (2002), 1-9. 8. Kawada Y., Taira S. and Tada Y., Manual for Stress Measurements, Ohm Press, Tokyo (1972), 363-366 (in Japanese). 9. Ohta A., Suzuki N. and Maeda Y., Shift of S-N Curves with Stress Ratio, Welding in the World, in press. 10. Haibach E., The Allowable Stresses under Variable Amplitude Loading of Welded Joints, Proc. Conf. Fatigue Welded Structures 2, The Welding Institute, Cambridge (1971), 328-339.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank the members of the Committee for Fatigue of Welded Joints in NIMS for the support on this data sheet project, and Dr. S.J. Maddox, TWI, Cambridge, UK for his assistance with the editing of this paper.

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