Abstract
In order to investigate fatigue behavior of welded joints under the combined stresses, which consist of normal and out-of-plane shear stress, fatigue tests of butt-welded joints containing lack-of-penetration inclined to applied stresses are carried out. The inclined angles are 0, 15, 30 or 45 degrees for transverse direction which is perpendicular to applied stresses and a gap of 0 or 1.5mm wide is introduced in each specimen. The test results show that the inclined angles and applied stress ranges influence the pattern of fatigue crack propagation, which can be divided into two types. The test results arranged for 0, 15 and 30 degrees show almost the same fatigue life when the data are plotted for nominal stress ranges at throat section. The test results for 45 degrees show the longer fatigue life than the other specimens.
