Fatigue life analysis based on the groove angle reduction in the butt welding of excavator booms

Abstract

This study analyzes the effect of changes in groove angle on the fatigue strength of the V-groove butt weld joint made of SM490A steel used in excavators. Butt-type specimens with different groove angles of 40° and 30° were manufactured by CO2 welding at a speed of 300 mm/min on a 13.5 mm thick steel plate. Four-point bending fatigue tests were conducted at room temperature with a frequency of 5 Hz and stress ratio of R = 0.1, and fatigue limits were set to 2 × 106 cycles. The high-cycle fatigue life of VG40 was approximately 7% higher than that of VG30. The stress concentration coefficient calculated using the effective notch stress method was 1.62 for the VG40, and 1.78 for the VG30, with an approximate difference of 9%. This decrease in fatigue life was caused by stress concentration due to the notch effect at the weld root, which was attributed to the adjacent backplate. Although the fatigue life decreased slightly owing to the improvement angle of the welded part, no difference was observed in microstructure and hardness. Therefore, it was confirmed that a sound weld was formed. The results of this study can be used as important basic data for determining the V-groove angle.