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IIW guideline for the assessment of weld root fatigue

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Abstract

At welded joints, fatigue cracks usually initiate either at the weld toe or the weld root. The latter may be influenced by small defects or other irregularities or even by non-fused root faces forming a slit which acts like a crack. Weld root failure has therefore to be checked for several weld types. Different approaches exist for fatigue assessment, including the rather simple nominal stress approach, local stress approaches and the crack propagation approach which are partly well suited for the assessment of weld root fatigue. However, it is not easy to keep the overview and to decide which approach should be applied in the case in question. For this purpose, the guideline has been established giving an overview of the different approaches with special emphasis on weld roots and discussing their suitability and the limitations. Six typical examples are described where different approaches are applied and in some cases compared with fatigue tests, thus giving insight into the practical application and allowing own judgement.

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Acknowledgments

The document is a product of several years of study by Working Group 3, ‘Stress Analysis’ of IIW Commission XIII. The support by the Chairmen of Commission XIII, Prof. G. Marquis (Finland), and Commission XV, R.E. Shaw (USA), and of the Joint Working Group of Commissions XIII/XV, A. Hobbacher (Germany) is appreciated. Special acknowledgement is made to all members of the working group for their review and valuable discussions and in particular to the following for thier contributions to the text and demonstration examples: J. Baumgartner, C. Fischer, C. Robert and C.M. Sonsino from Germany, I. Lotsberg from Norway, Z. Barsoum from Sweden, G. Meneghetti from Italy, H. Remes from Finland and D. Turlier and F. Menan from France.

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  1. Institute of Ship Structural Design and Analysis, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Wolfgang Fricke

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  1. Wolfgang Fricke
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Fricke.

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Doc. IIW-2384, recommended for publication by Commission XIII “Fatigue of Welded Components and Structures”

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Fricke, W. IIW guideline for the assessment of weld root fatigue. Weld World 57, 753–791 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-013-0066-y

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