Assessing the very high cycle fatigue behaviour and frequency effect of structural steel welds

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England, Andrew and Gorash, Yevgen and Toumpis, Athanasios (2025) Assessing the very high cycle fatigue behaviour and frequency effect of structural steel welds. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures. ISSN 8756-758X (https://doi.org/10.1111/ffe.14569)

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Abstract

The very high cycle fatigue behavior of S275J2+N flux-core arc welded joints was investigated using the ultrasonic fatigue testing method at a loading frequency of 20 kHz. A bespoke specimen design featuring the weld toe was employed to more suitably represent in-service welded joints than typical ultrasonic fatigue testing specimens. This revealed that fracture occurs above 10 million cycles, beyond the classically accepted fatigue limit. Additionally, comparative fatigue tests were performed at 10 Hz to investigate the frequency effect on the fatigue behavior. A 35% increase in fatigue strength was measured at 20 kHz when compared to 10 Hz, indicating that a correction must be considered in the use of ultrasonic fatigue testing data for design purposes. Fracture surfaces for both test frequencies showed similar morphologies and typical characteristics for fatigue failures of ductile metals.

ORCID iDs

England, Andrew, Gorash, Yevgen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2802-7814 and Toumpis, Athanasios ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3245-4536;
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