FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF A BUTT WELDED JOINT BY S-N APPROACH

Abstract

A failure analysis based on stress life approach may be useful for predicting the life time of weld in the structure. This study presents an upcoming methodology in new three dimensional Finite Element Model to calculate the fatigue life of weld. Ansys 12.1 simulation software uses stress-life method, based on a static non-linear Structural analysis. The weld material S-N curve were experimentally determined by the Fatigue testing of the dumbell specimen as per 7608 standard. This study assumes that a flaw exist in weld due to welding process, material in-homogeneity, air voids, slugs or impurities in weld, improper surface machining and many more. This material curve is used in simulation to get more accurate results. Thus the fatigue life prediction with the material curves from experimentation will give us more accurate and close to actual failure results.