An evaluation of multiaxial fatigue criteria for welded joints under proportional load based on the notch stress, structural stress and nominal stress approach

Currently, there exists a relatively large number of guidelines and recommendations which deal with the fatigue assessment of welded structures. In these guidelines, different approaches are proposed to assess the service life of welded structures under multi-axial loading conditions. Aim of this paper is the evaluation of the quality of these approaches. Experimental fatigue data using multiaxial loading conditions from the literature were collected establishing a target data set. An evaluation of the data was performed using three guidelines (IIW-recommendations, FKM guideline and Eurocode 3) as well as a critical plane approach. All evaluations have been performed for the nominal, the structural and the effective notch stress approach.