Fatigue design of welded joints by local approaches: Comparison between fictitious notch rounding and strain energy averaging

The paper demonstrates the close correspondence between two local approaches to assess the fatigue strength of welded joints: Radaj's approach based on fictitious notch rounding and a recently proposed approach based on the local strain energy density (SED) averaged over a given control volume. This volume surrounds the weld root or weld toe, both modelled as sharp (zero radius) V-notches with different opening angles. The two approaches are applied to load carrying and non-load carrying cruciform joints and the theoretical fatigue notch factors Kf are compared. The SED averaged over the control volume is determined from finite element models with very fine meshes, as typically designed to evaluate the intensity of the asymptotic stress distributions, and also from coarse meshes, showing a surprisingly good correspondence.