International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158

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International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Fatigue crack initiation point of load carrying cruciform joints in low

and high cycle fatigue regions
Kawin Saiprasertkit ⇑, Eiichi Sasaki, Chitoshi Miki
Department of Civil Engineering, 2-12-1-M1-23 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Load carrying cruciform joints with incomplete penetration generally have two fatigue cracking points
Received 25 March 2013 which are the weld root and toe. The crack initiation point in high cycle fatigue region depends mainly
Received in revised form 30 August 2013 on weld leg size and incomplete penetration ratio, while the material mismatching between the base
Accepted 6 September 2013
and weld metal becomes significant in the low cycle fatigue region. Elasto-plastic analysis was performed
Available online 18 September 2013
on load carrying cruciform joints with difference in size of weld leg, incomplete penetration and material
mismatching. The effective notch was assigned at the weld root and toe, and the strains around both
Keywords:
notches were compared. It was demonstrated that the cracking points estimated from the analysis agreed
Load carrying cruciform joints
Crack initiation points
with the experimental results.
Low cycle fatigue Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Incomplete penetration
Material mismatch

1. Introduction matched joints. Higher strain concentration may be generated at

The fatigue strength of load carrying cruciform welded joints in
high cycle fatigue region can be categorized into two fatigue clas-
sifications by considering from crack initiation location [1,2]. The
crack initiation location depends mainly on the size of unfused
portion called ‘‘incomplete penetration’’. In case of full penetration
welded joints where the size of the incomplete penetration equals
to zero, fatigue cracks occur from the weld toe. On the other hands,
for partial penetration welded joints, crack initiation points can oc-
cur from the weld root and/or the weld toe depending on the size
of the incomplete penetration and weld size [3–7].
In high cycle fatigue region, the fatigue strength of the load car-
rying cruciform joints failing by cracking from the weld toe is high-
er than that by cracking from the weld root. The fatigue strength is
shown to increase as the weld penetration and weld size increased,
corresponding to a change in the fracture mode from the root fail-
ure to the toe failure. Meanwhile, when focusing on low cycle fati-
gue region, the cracking points may depend on not only the weld
geometry (weld penetration and size) but also material mismatch-
ing between base metal and weld metal because most of the
welded part will be yielding.
According to design specifications, even- or over-matched joints
where the yield strength of the weld metal is equal or higher than
that of the base metal are necessary. However, adoptions of steels
with high yield strength might result in unexpectedly under-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: saiprasertkit.k.aa@m.titech.ac.jp (K. Saiprasertkit).
the weld root by the under-matched joints more than the over-
matched joints. Therefore, under extremely high intensity cyclic
loads such as earthquakes, unforeseen failure from the weld root
may occur in the under-matched joints even when sufficient weld
penetration is achieved.
Local strains at the cracking point are conventionally used to
evaluate the low cycle fatigue strength [8–11]. However, it is diffi-
cult to calculate the local strain at the weld root, because stress
singularity exists there. Therefore, by applying the effective notch
concept [12] to the weld root, the fatigue assessment method by
the local strain calculated at the notch called effective notch strain
has been proposed [13].
In this paper, the crack initiation points of the load carrying cru-
ciform joints under low cycle fatigue loading were investigated by
applying the effective notch strain.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Specimen configurations and dimensions
Fig. 1 shows the dimensions and configurations of testing spec-
imens. High strength steel named JIS SBHS500 with 16 mm thick-
ness was used to fabricate the specimens. The incomplete
penetration ratio (2a/tp), which is the ratio between the length of
unfused portion and the thickness of loading plate, was designed
to be 100%, 50% and 25%. Weld root gaps were approximately
0 mm. The specimens are classified according to the incomplete
penetration ratio, as P100, P50 and P25 type, respectively.

0142-1123/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2013.09.002
154 K. Saiprasertkit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158

30 16
P100 P50 P25
(2a/tp=1.00) (2a/tp=0.50) (2a/tp=0.25)
Displacement

190
transducer tp tp tp
16

2a 2a 2a

50 50
Incomplete penetration Weld metal
190

Fig. 1. Specimens in mm. (tp indicates thickness of load carrying plate).

2.2. Material mismatched conditions 3. Experimental results

The specimens were fabricated with two kinds of welding con-
ditions to obtain different material mismatching between the weld
metal and the base metal. The mechanical properties of the weld
metal and the base metal were investigated by using round bar
type specimens cut out from the specimen as indicated in the pre-
vious study [13].
Tensile test results and obtained yield strengths are shown in
Fig. 2 and Table 1, respectively. In the table, the mismatched ratio
(WM/BM) is the ratio of the yield strength of the weld metal to the
base metal. The mismatched ratio of more than 1.0 means over-
matched joints and less than 1.0 means under-matched joints. As
given in Table 1, the specimen consists of approximately 25%
over-matched and 25% under-matched, which are classified as
O25 and U25 type respectively. The specimens were named
according to the incomplete penetration ratio and the mismatched
ratio as given in Table 2.
2.3. Testing methods
Low cycle fatigue tests were controlled by the value of displace-
ment transducers of 50 mm gauge length as shown in Fig. 1. Con-
stant displacement ranges of 0.11–0.33 mm were given to
specimens. The specimens were loaded quasi-statically at approx-
imately 0.0017–0.0082 mm/s. For comparison, high cycle fatigue
tests were conducted with the constant stress range at weld throat
area of 75–270 MPa.
1000
3.1. Crack initiation and propagation
Fig. 3 shows the observation results for specimens P25–U25 and
P25–O25 during the low cycle fatigue test the crack propagation
paths in these specimens are different and are defined in this paper
as root failure type and toe failure type, respectively. Crack lengths
measured from the figures are also shown in Fig. 4. In both root and
toe failures, the cracks can be observed at very early cycles and
grow with repeated loading. In a specimen with root failure as
shown in Fig. 3(a), the crack initiates at the weld root in the early
cycles and then gradually propagates through the weld metal. In a
specimen with toe failure as shown in Fig. 3(b), the crack also ini-
tiates at the root but only propagates for certain length, mean-
while, a toe crack initiates and propagates towards the root crack
and forms a major crack along the boundary between the weld me-
tal and the HAZ.
The failure patterns of the specimens are summarized in Table 3.
In the high cycle fatigue tests, root failures were observed for all
specimens. These results agree with the previous research [6] since
the geometry of the specimens in this study meets the root failure
condition.
In contrast, both root and toe failures were observed in the low
cycle fatigue tests. In the under-matched specimens, root failures
occurred regardless of the incomplete penetration ratio. On the
other hand, in the over-matched specimens, toe failures were ob-
served in the partial weld cases (P50–O25 and P25–O25). It is obvi-
ous from the results that an over-matched of more than 25% along
with an incomplete penetration ratio of less than 50% can induce
toe failure in low cycle fatigue. Consequently, crack propagation
patterns in the low cycle fatigue region depend on not only the
weld geometry but also the material mismatched ratio.

800
3.2. Low cycle fatigue strength
True stress (MPa)

600 Fig. 5 shows the low cycle fatigue test results in terms of strain
O25 range versus fatigue life. The strain range was calculated by divid-
SBHS500 ing the applied displacement range by the gauge length of the dis-
400
placement transducer. The fatigue life was defined as the number
U25
of cycles when the maximum load dropped by 20% due to crack
200 propagation [13]. The failure patterns of root and toe failures are
indicated in the graph. It is obvious that the toe failure specimens
have a longer fatigue life than the root failure specimens. More-
0
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 over, material mismatching and incomplete penetration ratios
were found to have significant influence on low cycle fatigue
True strain
strength as the specimens with under-matched showed lower fati-
Fig. 2. Tensile test results of materials. gue strengths, but smaller incomplete penetration ratios tended to
 K. Saiprasertkit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158 155

result in higher fatigue strength, respectively. There results agree
to the previous study [14] as the underatch joints have higher level
of stress concentrated in the welded joints than that of over-
matched joints. Therefore, the effects of material mismatching
and incomplete penetration ratios must be taken into account
when considering low cycle fatigue strength.
3.3. Elasto-plastic finite element analyses
Previous studies [15,16] have indicated that weld leg, plate
thickness, incomplete penetration ratio, etc. which are weld geom-
etry of the joints can affect the failure mode in high cycle fatigue
region. However, as mentioned above, crack propagation patterns
depend on not only the weld geometry but also the material mis-
matched condition in the low cycle fatigue region. This may be be-
cause local elasto-plastic strain behavior around the crack
initiation points (weld root and weld toe) can be affected by mate-
rial mismatched and incomplete penetration. Therefore, the local
strain fields around the root and toe were analyzed with elasto-
plastic finite element method.
The effective notch concept [12] was introduced to avoid the
stress singularity at the weld root. The local strain along the effec-
tive notch is called ‘‘effective notch strain’’ [13], which was calcu-
lated by the analyses and then used to investigate the differences
of the cracking points. The effect of residual stress is not considered
in this study.

Table 1 3.4. Analytical models

Mechanical property of materials.

Material Mechanical properties The models and boundary conditions shown in Fig. 6 were basi-
cally the same as the previous study [13]. Two-dimensional analy-
Yield strength (MPa) Matching ratio (WM/BM)
ses under plane strain assumption were performed in ABAQUS. By
Base metal (BM) 534  taking the advantage of the symmetry planes of the specimen, one-
Weld metal (WM) quarter symmetrical models were created. Each model was specif-
O25 (overmatch) 665 1.25 ically built based on the weld geometry of the specimens.
U25 (undermatch) 407 0.76
The effective notch introduced to the weld root was a keyhole
shape with a radius of 1.0 mm. The elements of 0.05 mm size (1/

Table 2
Specimen details.

Base metal Incomplete penetration ratio (2a/tp) Mismatching ratio (WM/BM) Name
SBHS500 1.00 (P100) 1.25 (O25) P100–O25
0.76 (U25) P100–U25
0.50 (P50) 1.25 (O25) P50–O25
0.76 (U25) P50–U25
0.25 (P25) 1.25 (O25) P25–O25
0.76 (U25) P25–U25

Weld metal Weld metal

Observed area Specimen P25-U25 Specimen P25-O25

Base metal HAZ Base metal HAZ

Initial 20 cycles 98 cycles 197 cycles 231 cycles 279 cycles

Crack

10% load drop 20% load drop 30% load drop Failure

(a) Root failure specimen (P25-U25).

Initial 25 cycles 145 245 cycles 350 cycles 425 cycles

cycles
Root crack Toe crack

10% load drop 20% load drop 30% load drop Failure

(b) Toe failure specimen (P25-O25).

Fig. 3. Crack initiation and propagation in low cycle fatigue test.
156 K. Saiprasertkit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158

Root crack specimen 8 Root failure

Toe crack specimen 7 P-100-U25
16 16
6 P-50-U25

Strain range x 10 (mm/mm)

30% load drop 14 P-25-U25
14

p
lo dro
op
30 loa p
% dro 20% load drop 5

dr
P-100-O25
% d
ad
10% load drop
2 0 ad

12 12
Crack length (mm)

lo

4 Toe failure
%

-3
10

10 10 P-50-O25
P-25-O25
8 8 3

6 6

4 4 2

2 2
1 2 3 4
0 0 10 10 10 10
0 100 200 300 400 500
Fatigue life
Number of cycles
Fig. 5. Low cycle fatigue test results.
Fig. 4. Crack length of root and toe failure types.

20 of the notch radius) were assigned around the notch, which sat-
isfies the IIW recommendations [1]. The areas around the effective Weld metal Base metal HAZ
notch were meshed in the same configuration. The failure criterion
is not considered in this study.
As indicated in Fig. 6, the base metal, the weld metal and HAZ
regions identified by surface etching were individually created in R=1.0
the analytical models, and different constitutive equations were
assigned to each region. In this study, the yield function, given in R=1.0
Eqs. (1)–(3) was used for each material and respects both isotropic
and kinematic hardening rules [17].
Incomplete penetration
f ¼ r  X  R  ry ¼ 0; ð1Þ

R ¼ R1 ð1  expðb  ep ÞÞ; ð2Þ

X ¼ X 1 ð1  expðc  ep ÞÞ; ð3Þ

Fig. 6. Analytical model.
where R is the isotropic hardening, X is the back stress, ry, R1, b, X1,
good agreements between the analytical and experimental results
c are material parameters, ep is the equivalent plastic strain and r is
are obtained.
the equivalent stress.
Isotropic and kinematic hardening parameters were identified
3.5. Calculation of effective notch strain range
by material tests using the round bar type specimens cut from
the base and the weld metals. The identified isotropic and kine-
The maximum value of equivalent total strain range calculated
matic parameters are listed in Table 4. The HAZ was assumed to
in the elements along the notch is used as the effective notch strain
have a 20% higher yield strength than the base metal and the same
range in this study. The equivalent total strain is the summation of
isotropic and kinematic hardening parameters as the base metal.
the elastic and plastic components as given in Eq. (4).
The accuracy of the analysis models are verified by comparing
with experimental results. Fig. 7 shows the comparison of the Dr
Deeff ¼ Det ¼ þ Dep ; ð4Þ
load–displacement relationship during the first cycle. Relatively E

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
Dr ¼ ½ðDrx  Dry Þ2 þ ðDry  Drz Þ2 þ ðDrz  Drx Þ2 þ 6ðDs2xy þ Ds2yz þ Ds2zx Þ; ð5Þ
2

Table 3
Crack propagation patterns.

Specimen LCF test HCF test

Applied displacement range (mm) Stress range 75–270 MPa
0.33 0.23 0.18 0.11
P100–U25 Root Root Root Root Root
P100–O25 Root Root Root Root Root
P50–U25 Root Root Root Root Root
P50–O25 Toe Toe Toe Toe Root
P25–U25 Root Root Root Root Root
P25–O25 Toe Toe Toe Toe Root
 K. Saiprasertkit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158 157

Table 4
Isotropic and kinematic hardening parameters.

Material ry (MPa) Isotropic Kinematic

R1 (MPa) b X1 (MPa) c
Base metal (BM) 452 143 4 190 36
Weld metal (WM)
O25 544 285 2 168 100
U25 328 113 1 215 92

400
Toe failure Root failure
Loading 1.0
200 Toe
Root
0.8
Load (kN)

0 0.6 Estimated curve from

H/tp
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
previous study [6]
Disp. (mm) 0.4
-200
Experiment 0.2
Unloading
Keyhole 1.0 0.0
-400
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Fig. 7. Comparison of experiment and analysis results. 2a/t p

Fig. 8. Mapping of failure locations in high cycle fatigue region.

rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 3
Dep ¼ 2½ðDep;x  Dep;y Þ2 þ ðDep;y  Dep;z Þ2 þ ðDep;z  Dep;x Þ2 þ ðDc2p;xy þ Dc2p;yz þ Dc2p;zx Þ; ð6Þ
3 2

where Dr is the normal stress range, Ds is the shear stress range, 4. Failure location mapping
Dep is the normal plastic strain range, Dcp is the shear plastic strain
range, the subscripts of x, y and z are the x, y and z directions, To investigate the effects of the mismatched condition and weld
respectively, Deeff is the effective notch strain range, Det is the joint geometry on the failure location of specimens in the low cycle
equivalent total strain range, Dr is the equivalent stress range fatigue region, elasto-plastic analysis was performed using incom-
and Dep is the equivalent plastic strain range. plete penetration ratios of 0.2 < 2a/tp < 1.0, weld size ratios of
0.2 < H/tp < 1.0 (H is the weld size) and mismatched ratios of 0.8
3.6. Indication of weld root and toe failure and 1.3. In this study, toe failure was assumed to occur when the
ratio of effective notch strain range at the toe to the root was high-
As demonstrated in the previous study [13], the effective notch er than 0.9 or close to 1.0.
strain range is the governing parameter on low and high cycle fa-
tigue life. Thus, the failure location was correlated with the effec- 4.1. High cycle fatigue region
tive notch strain value, and the root and toe failure occurrences
were investigated. The ratio of the effective notch strain range at To confirm the consistency with the previous research in the
the weld toe to that at the weld root was used to indicate the fail- high cycle fatigue region [6,7], elastic analysis was also performed
ure location. The ratios calculated for the specimens are shown in with the same geometry cases as mentioned above. The mis-
Table 5, the results reveal that the ratios were higher than 0.9 or matched ratio is excluded, and effective notch strains are equiva-
close to 1.0 in the toe failure specimens and less than 0.9 in the lent to effective notch stresses.
root failure specimens. Consequently, the effective notch strain The failure locations based on the analytical results are shown in
range ratio can be used to determine the failure location. Fig. 8, where high cycle fatigue test data in this study are plotted by

Table 5
Ratio of effective notch strain at weld toe to weld root for each specimens.

Specimen LCF test HCF test

Applied displacement range (mm) Stress range 75–270 MPa
0.33 0.28 0.23 0.11
P100–U25 0.734 0.746 0.784 0.792 0.812
P100–O25 0.743 0.751 0.736 0.784 0.816
P50–U25 0.805 0.801 0.810 0.851 0.850
P50–O25 0.920a 0.932a 0.929a 0.945a 0.856
P25–U25 0.859 0.852 0.831 0.849 0.895
P25–O25 0.949a 0.937a 0.948a 0.962a 0.893
a
Toe failure specimens.
158 K. Saiprasertkit et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 59 (2014) 153–158

Toe failure Root failure Toe failure Root failure

1.0 1.0

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

H/t p
H/t p
(4/4) (4/4)
(0/4) (0/4) (0/4) (0/4)
0.4 0.4
(0/6) (0/6) (0/4)
0.2 0.2
(0/4)
0.0 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
2a/tp 2a/t p

(a) 20% under-matching (b) 30% over-matching

Fig. 9. Mapping of failure locations in low cycle fatigue region.

triangle symbols. The boundary of the root and the toe failures esti- According to the analytical results, weld geometries and mate-
mated in the previous study [6] is also indicated. The analytically rial mismatched conditions when root and toe failure occurs were
estimated failure locations agreed with the proposed boundary. indicated.

4.2. Low cycle fatigue region

Fig. 9 indicates the failure locations by the analytical results
alongside the experimental data represented by triangle symbols,
the numbers in parentheses denote the ratio of the number of
toe failure specimens to the total number of specimens. In the fig-
ure, blue colored symbols specify zones when the ratio of effective
notch strain range was less than 0.9 and red colored symbols spec-
ify zones when the ratio of effective notch strain range was higher
than 0.9 or close to 1.0.
It is clear that experimental results agreed with analytical results
since only root failures were observed in the under-matched cases.
In the over-matched cases, toe failure specimens were observed in
the transition between root and toe failure zone, however, since it
is relatively close to the transition zone, there is a possibility of both
root and toe failure. Considering the effect of the mismatched ratio,
the toe failure zone tended to be widen in the over-matched case
condition than in the under-matched condition. As a result, the effect
of material mismatched must be taken into account when evaluating
the failure pattern in the low cycle fatigue region.
5. Conclusions
It was determined that incomplete penetration and material
mismatched between the weld metal and the base metal has a sig-
nificant influence on the low cycle fatigue strength and crack initi-
ation points.
To avoid stress singularities, effective notch strains at the crack-
ing points were used to evaluate failure patterns of the specimens.
In the toe failure specimens, the ratios of the effective notch strain
range at the weld toe to the weld root were higher than 0.9 or close
to 1.0. While, the ratio were less than 0.9 in case of the root failure
specimens.
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