RETROFITTING FATIGUE-CRACKED JOINTS BY TIG ARC REMELTING

Abstract

The TIG arc remelting procedure was applied to retrofitting fillet-welded joints with fatigue cracks at weld toes. Fatigue tests was performed on as-welded joints and on retrofitted joints in order to verify the effect of this procedure, and the growth of fatigue cracks was analyzed using a fracture mechanics approach. Experimental and analytical results show that the fatigue lives of cracked joints are greatly improved by TIG arc remelting when the cracks have been completely remelted. When the cracks were not successfully remelted, the fatigure lives of retrofitted joints were influenced by layer thickness of remelted zone and size of remaining crack.