Fracture from fatigue cracks installed at weld toes of plate to plate T-joints

This paper concerns the assessment of the effects of weld defects on crack growth and fracture behavior of welded T-joints. Each welded T-joint specim en was composed of a main plate and a rib plate. These specimens were insta lled with fatigue cracks at the weld toes. Two different loading methods we re adopted to test T-joints. Welded T;joints showed large-scale yielding ar ound the weld defect, and sustained brittle fracture and/or ductile tear af ter showing significant ductile crack growth. Test and numerical results we re evaluated on the basis of the failure assessment diagram (FAD) according to BSI PD 6493.