Fatigue improvement of welded bridge details in stainless steel using high-frequency mechanical impact treatment

Paper in proceedings, 2018

This paper reports the results from fatigue testing on welded non-load-carrying transverse attachments made of C-Mn (S460) and stainless (LDX2101) steels. The tests are done on 40 mm thick specimens in as-welded and HFMI-treated specimens. Measurements on weld toe radius and weld residual stresses are also reported. The results show that the improvement of fatigue strength that can be achieved by HFMItreatment on welded LDX2101 steel is similar to what is obtained for equivalent C-Mn steels. Also in the aswelded condition do these two types of steel show similar fatigue strength. HFMI-treatment gives more than 5 steps increase in fatigue strength for both steels, which is higher than what specified, for example by the recommendations of the International Institute of Welding.