This paper focuses on the fatigue behavior of aluminum alloy welded joints, which can represent points of weakness in the ship structure. The traditional methods of fatigue assessment of welded joints have some limitations and are extremely time consuming. The Risitano method, based on thermographic analysis, has been applied to overcome these difficulties by predicting the fatigue behavior of welds. Experimental tests have been carried out to assess and compare the fatigue capability(S-N curves, endurance limits) of different welded joints, obtained by means of friction stir welding (FSW) and metal inert gas (MIG) welding. Fatigue predictions obtained resorting to the thermographic method (TM) show good agreement with those derived from the traditional procedure. Thus, TM proves to be a powerful tool also for the characterization of the kind of welded joints mentioned.

Keywords:
marine transportation, ship structure, international journal, stress range, hydraulic fracturing, stress Approach, assessment, geometry, temperature increment, endurance limit
Subjects:
Hydraulic Fracturing
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2007. The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
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