Abstract
It is well known that grinding the weld toe is not only effective in increasing the fatigue life at the weld joint by removing the initial defect and by reducing the stress concentration, but also rather convenient to apply and survey at the construction stage without special equipment or techniques. In this research work, comparative fatigue tests have been performed for a total of five types of weld specimens: three types of small welded specimens and two types of small-scaled structural models. According to the results of the fatigue tests, the enhancement factor of fatigue life by toe grinding for small welded specimens is determined to be about 6 to 10. However, the enhancement factor of fatigue life by toe grinding for small-scaled structure is 1.9 to 5.4. In the case of small welded specimens, once the crack is initiated to a certain level, then the crack propagation is accelerated rapidly due to simplicity of structural shape. In the case of actual ship structures, however, even after the crack is initiated to a certain level, the crack propagation is not accelerated as much due to structural redundancy. The toe grinding is only beneficial in extending the crack initiation life. Accordingly, the effect of toe grinding on the fatigue life at the actual structure is not as predominant as the one at the small welded specimen.
Published Version
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