Fatigue Capacity of Load Carrying Fillet-Welded Connections Subjected to Axial and Shear Loading

The status on current design recommendations concerning the fatigue capacity of load carrying fillet welds was presented by Maddox (Maddox, S., 2006, “Status Review on Fatigue Performance of Fillet Welds,” Proceedings of the OMAE Conference, Hamburg, Germany, Jun., Paper No. OMAE2006-92314) based on a literature survey. In order to examine the validity of the recommendations and to supplement the fatigue test database, a test matrix with 33 specimens was developed. This included 8 simple fillet-welded cruciform joints that were subjected to axial loading and 25 fillet-welded tubular specimens that were subjected to axial load and/or torsion for simulation of a combined stress condition in the fillet weld. The data obtained from these fatigue tests are presented in this paper. The test data are also compared with design guidance from IIW (1996, Fatigue Design of Welded Joints and Components: Recommendations of IIW Joint Working Group XIII-XV, A. Hobbacher, ed., Abington Publishing, Cambridge), Eurocode 3 (1993, Eurocode 3: Design of Steel Structures—Part 1–1: General Rules and Rules for Buildings), and DNV-RP-C203 (DNV, 2005, DNV-RP-C203, Fatigue Strength Analysis of Offshore Steel Structures).