The work aims to provide a theoretical basis for the reliability assessment of welded joints in components. Three typical welding processes, including shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), and submerged arc welding (SAW) were selected, along with two typical base metal grades, Q550D and Q690D, to prepare six different types of welded joints. Tensile tests were first conducted to determine the tensile strength. Subsequently, fatigue tests were carried out with 80%, 70%, and 60% of the tensile strength as the maximum stress levels to obtain the S-N curves for the six welded joints, enabling a quantitative comparative analysis of their fatigue performance. Additionally, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was utilized to observe the fracture microstructures and analyze the failure mechanisms. The GMAW welded joints exhibited the highest tensile strength but the smallest plastic deformation. In contrast, SMAW and SAW welded joints had relatively lower tensile strengths but larger plastic deformations. When the base metal grade was Q550D, the GMAW welded joints demonstrated the longest fatigue life, while SMAW and SAW welded joints had relatively shorter fatigue lives. For Q690D base metal, in the low-cycle fatigue region, the fatigue life of GMAW welded joints exceeded that of SMAW, whereas the opposite phenomenon was observed in the high-cycle fatigue region. The SAW welded joints consistently exhibited the lowest fatigue life. When the base metal grade was changed from Q550D to Q690D, the fatigue life of SMAW increased, while that of GMAW decreased. For SAW, the fatigue life increased in the high-cycle region but decreased in the low-cycle region. A dimpled structure with smaller and shallower dimples confers higher tensile strength to the material but also results in smaller plastic deformation. An increase in tensile strength contributes to prolonged fatigue life, whereas degradation in plastic performance reduces fatigue life, with these two factors competing against each other.
Key words
welded joint /
tensile strength /
fatigue life /
process effect /
shielded metal arc welding /
gas metal arc welding /
submerged arc welding
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Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (52177189); Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Joint Program for Basic Research (24JCZXJC00130)
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