2008 Volume 48 Issue 11 Pages 1640-1646
This paper reveals the fatigue crack growth behaviour of the shielded metal arc welded AISI 409M grade ferritic stainless steel joints fabricated using austenitic stainless steel (ASS), ferritic stainless steel (FSS) and duplex stainless steel (DSS) electrodes. Centre cracked tensile (CCT) specimens were prepared to evaluate fatigue crack growth behaviour. Servo hydraulic controlled fatigue testing machine with a capacity of 100 kN was used to evaluate the fatigue crack growth behaviour of the welded joints. It is found that the joints fabricated by DSS electrode showed superior fatigue crack growth resistance compared to the joints fabricated by ASS and FSS electrodes. Higher yield strength and relatively higher toughness of the weld metal may be the reasons for superior fatigue performance of the joints fabricated by DSS electrode.