Fatigue Reliability Analysis of an Overload Effect in Welded Joints Including Crack Initiation and Plastic Zone as Random Variables

Abstract

Abstract This paper deals with the reliability analysis of the influence of an overload on the fatigue design of welded joints. The modeling of the fatigue life is presented as the sum of four parts: the first one concerns the fatigue life initiation, the second one involves the fatigue life between the initiation period and the overload application, the third one deals with the fatigue life behavior from the overload to the total restoration of the crack growth rate, and the fourth is related to the fatigue life between the end of the retardation zone until the failure. Concerning the modeling of the retardation effect, particular attention is given to the calculation of the effective stress intensity factor. Finally, the developed methodology is applied to the case of welded joints in order to evaluate the importance of considering the overload effect in the reliability analysis.