Abstract
The present study examines experimentally and analytically the fatigue strength improvement of out-of-plane gusset welded joint by additional welding using low temperature transformation welding materials. The measurement and FEM analysis indicate that high compressive residual stress can be introduced only in the vicinity of the additional weld toe. The stress concentration can be reduced because the weld bead becomes to have un-equal leg length but the reduction is not large. By this method, fatigue strength can be largely improved, 0 to 3 JSSC classes or more but the effectiveness depends on the applied stress ranges. This fatigue strength improvement is also obtained for the web-gusset joints of the large-scale girder specimens.
