Fatigue Performance of High- and Low-Strength Repaired Welded Steel Joints

Large portions of infrastructure buildings, for example highway- and railway bridges, are steel constructions reach the end their service life, as a reason an increase traffic volume. As lifetime extension commonly used weld detail (transverse stiffener) these structures, validated approach repair was proposed in this study. For this, welded joints made S355J2+N S960QL steels were subjected to cyclic loading until pre-determined crack depth reached. The cracks detected by non-destructive testing methods repaired removal material around re-welding with gas metal arc welding (GMAW). Then, specimens again. hardness, geometry, residual stress state investigated both original- conditions. It determined that nearly all reached at least fatigue life original specimen.