Effect of misalignments and welding penetration on the fatigue strength of a common welded detail: SED method predictions and comparisons with codes

This work exploits the SED method to investigate the effects of the main geometrical parameters and geometrical imperfections - uncomplete penetration, axial and angular misalignment - on the fatigue strength of cruciform welded joints. The predictions by the SED method have been compared with those of the most known codes. The volume-free procedure for an easy application of the SED method has been used. The SED method has been proved to be consistent with the codes; however, the codes estimations result to be always more conservative than the SED method predictions. The SED method has been proved to be a valid tool to investigate different loading and boundary conditions and to provide useful information to evaluate the most critical point in the component.