Issue 46

W. Song et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 46 (2018) 94-101; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.46.10 95 weld size varies by Xing [17]. From another perspective, NSIFs are adequate to precisely assess the fatigue crack initiation at sharp corner notches or crack-liked notches [18]. However, the process is computationally expensive and highly impractical for complex component geometries and/or long loading histories. Recently, Qian et al. [19] and Saiprasertkit et al. [20] provided explicit parametric expressions for non-load-carrying fillet welded joints and LCWJ considering different loading conditions and material properties based on a fictitious notch rounding concept. Hence, these analytical researches give us some inspiration to extend corresponding functions. SED values can be expressed as a function of relevant SIFs, which are estimated readily by analytical equations. In this paper, the primary goal is to assess fatigue life of LCWJ by extending an analytical formulation from the NSIFs including weld toe and weld root in LCWJ. Then, SED and PSM values are used to characterize the fatigue life from the related analytical equations. Such simple analytical equations allow a direct estimation of NSIF, SED and PSM values at weld toe or weld root in LCWJ by the available experimental data from fatigue tests and literature. N OTCH MECHANICS THEORY he problem of singularity at sharp notch tip has been solved by Williams solutions for mode I and mode II loading. Lately, these Williams solutions were introduced into NSIFs, to characterize quantitively the intensity of the asymptotic stress distributions close to a notch tip using a polar coordinate system (r, θ). NSIFs related to Mode I and II can be expressed by the notch stress fields, which are defined as follow equations [21]: 1 1 1 0 2 lim ( , 0) N r K r r           (1) 2 1 2 0 2 lim ( , 0) N r r K r r           (2) where the stress components   and r   have to be evaluated along the notch bisector (θ=0). Since the mesh strategy limits the developing of the NSIF method for complicated structures. We can obtain the notch intensity conveniently and avoid the disadvantage of NSIF method that their units are not uniform for different notch angle. Under plane strain conditions, the SED solutions containing mode I and mode II can be expressed by Eqn. (3) over a semicircular sector in Fig. 1 [22]. 1 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 N N c c e K e K W E E R R                      (3) where E is the Young's modulus, and c R is the radius of the semicircular sector, which is dependent on the material properties. It is defined as c 0.28 R mm  for steel welded joints. The parameters 1 e , 2 e are dependent on the opening angle 2  and on the Poisson’s ratio  . Lazzarin defined following convenient functions to assess the high cycle fatigue of welded joints for two fracture modes by simplifying the expression of NSIFs: 1 1 1 1 N n K k t       (4) 2 1 2 2 N n K k t       (5) where n   is the range of the nominal stress, t is the plate thickness and i k are non-dimensional coefficients, which are dependent on the overall joint geometry and on the kind of remote applied load (membrane or bending). Therefore, the SED equation can be modified by extended analytical expression for notch specimens. Furthermore, the SED equation is rewritten as the following form from Eqn. 3: 1 2 2(1 ) 2(1 ) 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 n t t W e k e k E R R                              (6) T