Influences of welding processes on fatigue life of cruciform joints of pressure vessel grade steels containing LOP defects

The influences of two welding processes, namely, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and flux cored arc welding (FCAW), on fatigue life of cruciform joints, containing lack of penetration (LOP) defects, have been studied. Load carrying cruciform joints were fabricated from high strength, quenched and tempered steels of pressure vessel (ASTM 517 `F') grade. Fatigue crack growth experiments were carried out in a mechanical resonance vertical pulsator (SCHENCK 200 kN capacity) with a frequency of 30 Hz under constant amplitude loading (R = 0). It was found that the fatigue lives of the cruciform joints fabricated by the SMAW process were relatively higher than the FCAW counterpart.