Effective Notch Stress for Welds








Plane Strain and Axysymetric models are very effective for comparing various weld joint geometries for life comparisons.  In the above example, using a life regression exponent of 3 (or .333 depending on your formula), the top weld joint is predicted to live through 73% more cycles than the second weld joint.  These computations little models provide stress concentrations for the weld toe or root that give a more accurate prediction based on the actual joint design and possibly as fabricated geometry as opposed to a hot-spot extrapolation.