Some considerations about fatigue failure in milled butt-welded joints affected by residual stress

Many factors are involved in determining the fatigue strength of welded joints. It is, however, very difficult to consider their relative importance. The aim of this paper is to isolate the effect of residual stress from other factors, establishing a relation between the amount of residual stress and fatigue life. A geometrical notch due to the weld bead is removed by milling the upper surface of the welded plates. Moreover, specimens are subjected to four-point bend loading. Before conducting the fatigue test, the magnitude of residual stress for each specimen is experimentally evaluated, and then linked to the number of cycles to failure. This relation is analyzed for three different plate thicknesses and for different stress amplitude levels in the high cycle regime. The results clearly show the significant influence of residual stress on fatigue behaviours when the load level is near the fatigue limit.