Search

Many engineering structures are exposed to non-proportional fatigue loading. However, at the critical location of crack initiation, often only one of the load sequences dominates – the individual load cases result in different crack initiation sites. Based on engineering judgment a simplified local uniaxial or proportional loading situation may be assessed. In general, the critical location must be identified by calculating fatigue lives for a variety of locations. The position of the critical location depends on the hypothesis applied for life calculation – besides loading, geometry, material and many other influence factors. For sharp three-dimensional notches the region for the search of the critical location may be restricted considerably. Weld start and stop points are an industrial example for such sharp notches. They are the object of the present investigation. They are exposed to nominal normal and shear loading. The individual hot spots for crack initiation lie necessarily close together. A strong interaction of the loading cases for both proportional and non-proportional loading was experimentally observed. In the numerical investigation notch stresses were calculated using an idealised weld end model. Based on the critical plane approach according to Findley, numerical interaction lines were produced.

Weld start and end points are fatigue failure sensitive locations. Their fatigue behaviour especially in thin sheet structures under multiaxial load conditions is not sufficiently explored so far. Therefore, a research project was initiated to increase the knowledge concerning this topic, which is of special interest in the automotive industry. In the present study, fatigue tests on welded joints were conducted. In the numerical part of the study, notch stresses were calculated with an idealised weld end model. A numerical method which combines the geometrical and statistical size effect to an integrated approach was used, in order to consider the size effects.