A simplified welding simulation approach used to design a fatigue test specimen containing residual stresses

ABSTRACT Although it is known that residual stresses may influence the fatigue strength of welded structures, they are usually not included explicitly in fatigue assessments. Experimental investigations on the influence welding residual stresses have on fatigue are complicated by the fact that small-scale specimens often show only little tensile residual stresses. In practice, residual stresses are usually not known and difficult to determine. Welding simulation approaches usually demand for experimental calibration making them unsuitable for residual stress predictions. The reliability of their results is however limited. Therefore, a welding simulation approach applying uniform temperatures without experimental calibration was proposed. Different input parameters were varied to determine their influence on the calculated residual stresses. The approach was then used to design a small-scale fatigue test specimen showing tensile residual stress at the weld. Specimens were produced based on the simulation results and residual stress measurements were compared to the calculated values.