Abstract
Fatigue strength obtained from cruciform welded joint specimens may be different from that of actual joints such as welded connections of lateral girder flange to main girder web or vertical stiffener to main girder flange, because main girder web is mush wider than lateral girder flange or vertical stiffener is narrower than main girder flange. For the purpose of examining the influence of specimen configuration on the fatigue strength, fatigue tests and stress analyses have been performed using model specimens on the connections of lateral girder flanges and usual cruciform welded joint specimens. Fatigue test results suggest that fatigue strength of the model specimens has been nearly equal to that of cruciform welded joint specimens. This fact has been also confirmed from the stress analyses considering weld shape at the corner of main plate.
