The notch stress approach for fatigue assessment of welded joints is based on the highest elastic stress at the weld toe or root. In order to avoid arbitrary or infinite stress results, a rounded shape with a reference radius, instead of the actual sharp toe or root, is usually assumed.
Wolfgang Fricke reviews different proposals for reference radii together with associated S-N curves. The guidelines give detailed recommendations for the numerical analysis of notch stress by the finite or boundary element method and present appropriate S-N curves for the assessment of the fatigue strength of different materials. Finally, four examples illustrate the application of the approach as well as the variety of structures which can be analyzed and the range of results which can be obtained from different models. Published in Association with the International Institute of Welding (IIW).
