Fatigue life assessment of welded joints in a crane boom using different structural stress approaches

Abstract

This article presents a study of the fatigue strength of welded parts in a crane boom. First, a finite element analysis was carried out over the whole structure. Two critical welded zones were identified and a detailed analysis was carried on them, in the form of sub-models. Three different approaches for estimating the structural stress in welded zones, were presented and applied to each sub-model. Results were compared and discussed. The evaluation of fatigue resistance by the use of appropriate S-N curves for each method was also carried out and discussed. The use of these approaches on a complex industrial structure, and on tubular joints with hollow sections required to perform many adaptations and to solve several difficulties presented hereafter.

Keywords

• fatigue assessment
• welded joints
• structural stress approach
• finite element analysis
• fatigue strength