Mismatch effect on fatigue crack propagation limit curves of S690QL, S960QL and S960TM type base materials and their gas metal arc welded joints

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the basic trends in the industry is the environmental impact reduction, in other words, the weight decreasing of structural elements and structures, which can be approached by applying different high-strength steels. In the case of different steel structures, the main manufacturing and joining technology is welding, the conventional and advanced methods of fusion and pressure welding processes. Besides the weight decreasing, the reliability and safety requirements according to steel structures have significantly grown. During the welding process, the welded parts are affected by heat effect and mechanical loads, which result in an inhomogeneous welded joint. The inhomogeneity of the welded joints appears both in microstructural (local) and in geometrical (both local and global) aspects. The changes in microstructure and geometry appear in deflections (basically acceptable) or rather in failures (basically unacceptable), and these influence both the behavior and the loadability of welded joints. Discontinuities in base materials and their welded joints have especially high danger in case of cyclic loading conditions, which are typical for different structures and structural elements (e.g., bridges, vehicles). There are different standards and prescriptions containing fatigue crack propagation limit curves and rules for the prediction of the crack growth; simple and two-stage crack growth relationships can be found in the literature, most frequently based on the Paris-Erdogan law. The paper summarizes and presents the results according to our fatigue crack growth investigations on Weldox 700E and Weldox 960E quenched and tempered (Q+T) and on Alform 960M thermomechanically treated (TM) high-strength steel base materials and their gas metal arc welded joints. The mismatch effect has also been studied; overmatched, matched, undermatched, and matched/overmatched (mixed matched) welded joints were investigated. 15 mm thick plates were used for the investigations; statistical aspects were applied both for presenting the possible crack locations in the real plates and for processing the measured data. Furthermore, the results will be compared with each other, and fatigue crack propagation limit curves will be derived using a simple crack growth relationship.