Experimental Investigation on Low-Cycle Fatigue Performance of Butt-Welded Steel Connections
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35, Issue 6
Abstract
Welded steel connections have been extensively used in practical engineering for the superiority of welding. However, many welded structures under complex disaster conditions have exhibited significant low-cycle fatigue damage, resulting in catastrophic accidents and tremendous economic losses. In this study, the low-cycle fatigue performance of steel welded connections was experimentally investigated based on full-field strain collected by a 3D-digital image correlation (DIC) system. Analysis of fatigue life, failure mode, force-displacement hysteresis curve, strain-time curve, and strain distribution of butt-welded steel connections under low-cycle fatigue loading was implemented. The failure process under low-cycle fatigue was investigated based on the strain distribution and variation of the weld zone and heat-affected zone and further explained from the point of micromechanisms. Results reveal that the strains of the weld zone were higher with the increase of loading cycles than that of other positions. Hence, the final failure of the specimens had a preference for the weld zone where the weld metal exhibited tensile and compressive plastic strain asymmetry and cyclic softening characteristics. The plastic strain accumulation of the weld zones and heat-affected zones should be the main reason for the failure of specimens under low-cycle fatigue.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
The data of the full-field strain, fatigue life, failure mode, and force-displacement hysteresis curve used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The research was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51438002). The authors wish to express great appreciation for the financial support of this research.
References
Amirafshari, P., N. Barltrop, M. Wright, and A. Kolios. 2021. “Weld defect frequency, size statistics and probabilistic models for ship structures.” Int. J. Fatigue 145 (Apr): 106069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2020.106069.
Baba, S., Y. Arizumi, and M. Naruoka. 1981. “Low-cycle fatigue test of welded tubular joints.” J. Struct. Div. 107 (3): 487–505. https://doi.org/10.1061/JSDEAG.0005660.
Cui, K., Y. Zhao, Y. Zhai, B. Huang, and C. Li. 2019. “Low cycle fatigue behavior of electron beam welded joint of CLAM steel at room temperature.” Fusion Eng. 149 (Dec): 111297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.111297.
Dalton, R. P., P. Cawley, and M. J. S. Lowe. 2001. “The potential of guided waves for monitoring large areas of metallic aircraft fuselage structures.” J. Nondestr. Eval. 20 (1): 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010601829968.
Guo, H., J. Wan, Y. Liu, and J. Hao. 2018. “Experimental study on fatigue performance of high strength steel welded joints.” Thin-Walled Struct. 131 (Oct): 45–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2018.06.023.
Guo, T., Z. Liu, S. Pan, and Z. Pan. 2015a. “Cracking of longitudinal diaphragms in long-span cable-stayed bridges.” J. Bridge Eng. 20 (11): 04015011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)BE.1943-5592.0000771.
Guo, T., Z. Liu, and J. Zhu. 2015b. “Fatigue reliability assessment of orthotropic steel bridge decks based on probabilistic multi-scale finite element analysis.” Steel Constr. 11 (3): 334–346. https://doi.org/10.18057/IJASC.2015.11.3.7.
Han, Q., P. Wang, and Y. Lu. 2019. “Low-cycle multiaxial fatigue behavior and life prediction of Q235B steel welded material.” Int. J. Fatigue 127 (Oct): 417–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2019.06.027.
Han, Q. H., X. Wang, and Y. Lu. 2018. “Experimental investigation on the corrosion behavior of G20Mn5QT cast steel and butt weld with Q345D steel.” Corros. Sci. 132 (5): 194–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2017.12.031.
Hanji, T., K. Tateishi, Y. Ohashi, and M. Shimizu. 2020. “Effect of weld penetration on low-cycle fatigue strength of load-carrying cruciform joints.” Weld. World 64 (2): 327–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-019-00834-w.
Hill. 1963. Proceedings of the crack propagation symposium. Cranfield, England: College of Aeronautics.
Hu, X., L. Huang, W. Wang, Z. Yang, W. Sha, W. Wang, W. Yan, and Y. Shan. 2013. “Low cycle fatigue properties of CLAM steel at room temperature.” Fusion Eng. 88 (11): 3050–3059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2013.08.001.
Jayakrishnan, S., and P. Chakravarthy. 2017. “Flux bounded tungsten inert gas welding for enhanced weld performance—A review.” J. Manuf. Process. 28 (Aug): 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2017.05.023.
Kang, G., and Y. Liu. 2007. “Uniaxial ratchetting and low-cycle fatigue failure of the steel with cyclic stabilizing or softening feature.” Mater. Sci. Eng., A 472 (1–2): 258–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2007.03.029.
Koh, S. K., and R. I. Stephens. 1991. “Mean stress effects on low cycle fatigue for a high strength steel.” Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater. 14 (4): 413–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2695.1991.tb00672.x.
Maday, M. F., and L. Pilloni. 2007. “The influence of hydrogen on the fatigue behaviour of base and gas tungsten arc welded Eurofer.” J. Nucl. Mater. 367–370 (Aug): 516–521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2007.03.107.
Maddox, S. J. 2002. Fatigue strength of welded structures. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing.
Nakata, T., and H. Tanigawa. 2012. “Evaluation of local deformation behavior accompanying fatigue damage in F82H welded joint specimens by using digital image correlation.” Fusion Eng. 87 (5–6): 589–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2012.01.048.
Paul, S. K., N. Stanford, A. Taylor, and T. Hilditch. 2015. “The effect of low cycle fatigue, ratcheting and mean stress relaxation on stress–strain response and microstructural development in a dual phase steel.” Int. J. Fatigue 80 (11): 341–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2015.06.003.
Pook, L. P. 2018. “Mixed-mode fatigue crack growth thresholds: A personal historical review of work at the National Engineering Laboratory, 1975–1989.” Eng. Fract. Mech. 187 (Jan): 115–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2017.10.028.
Ren, X., X. Xu, C. Jiang, Z. Huang, and X. He. 2020. “Strain distribution and fatigue life estimation for steel plate weld joint low cycle fatigue based on DIC.” Opt. Laser. Eng. 124 (Jan): 105839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlaseng.2019.105839.
Rout, A., B. Deepak, and B. B. Biswal. 2019. “Advances in weld seam tracking techniques for robotic welding: A review.” Rob. Comput. Integr. Manuf. 56 (Apr): 12–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcim.2018.08.003.
Saiprasertkit, K., T. Hanji, and C. Miki. 2011. “Experimental study of load-carrying cruciform joints containing incomplete penetration and strength under-matching in low and high cycle fatigue regions.” Procedia Eng. 14 (7): 572–581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.072.
Schjødt-Thomsen, J., and J. H. Andreasen. 2018. “Low cycle fatigue behaviour of welded T-joints in high strength steel.” Eng. Fail. Anal. 93 (Nov): 38–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2018.06.026.
Standardization Administration of China. 2008. The test method for axial loading constant-amplitude low-cycle fatigue of metallic materials. Beijing: Standards Press of China.
Suresh, S. 1998. Fatigue of materials. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Takeshi, T., K. Tateishi, Y. Ohashi, and M. Shimizu. 2020. “Effect of weld penetration on low-cycle fatigue strength of load-carrying cruciform joints.” Weld. World 64 (2): 327–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40194-019-00834-w.
Vera, M., M. Danilo, and C. Andrea, et al. 2019. “Ultrasonic waves for materials evaluation in fatigue, thermal and corrosion damage: A review.” Mech. Syst. Sig. Process. 120 (4): 32–42.
Walbridge, S. 2008. “Fatigue analysis of needle peened welds under variable amplitude loading conditions.” In Structures congress 2008, 1–10. Reston, VA: ASCE. https://doi.org/10.1061/41016(314)2.
Walker, S. V., J. Y. Kim, J. Qu, and L. J. Jacobs. 2012. “Fatigue damage evaluation in A36 steel using nonlinear Rayleigh surface waves.” NDT & E Int. 48 (6): 10–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ndteint.2012.02.002.
Wolfgang, F. 2003. “Fatigue analysis of welded joints: State of development.” Mar. Struct. 16 (3): 185–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0951-8339(02)00075-8.
Yin, F., and A. Fatemi. 2009. “Fatigue behaviour and life predictions of case-hardened steels.” Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater. 32 (3): 197–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2695.2009.01326.x.
Zhang, K., W. Dong, and S. Lu. 2021. “Finite element and experiment analysis of welding residual stress in S355J2 steel considering the bainite transformation.” J. Manuf. Process. 62 (Feb): 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2020.12.029.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35 • Issue 6 • December 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 27, 2021
Accepted: Jul 26, 2021
Published online: Sep 13, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 13, 2022
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.