Fatigue and Fracture of Welded Structures

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystalline Metals and Alloys".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 September 2025 | Viewed by 664

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: fracture mechanics; fatigue crack propagation; constraint effects; structural integrity assessment
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Guest Editor
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: fatigue; failure assessment; welding manufacturing; fatigue crack propagation

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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada
Interests: fracture mechanics; failure analysis; structural engineering; weight function; constraints
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Welding technology, as a highly durable, reliable, and cost-effective connection technique, is widely used in aerospace, rail transit, and other energy industries. The context for this Special Issue lies in the increasing demand for high-performance and durable welded structures. As structures are subjected to complex loading conditions and environmental factors, the occurrence of fatigue and fractures can lead to catastrophic failures. Therefore, research on the fatigue and fracture of welded structures is essential to develop effective prevention and mitigation strategies.

Over the past few decades, there have been extensive reports on the mechanical properties and deformation behaviours of welded structures. However, most of the current research primarily concentrates on common mechanical properties and deformation. There is a lack of research on the mechanical behaviour of welded structures in complex mechanical environments, especially in clarifying fractures, fatigue crack propagation, fatigue damage, and failure mechanisms via advanced characterization methods and numerical analysis models.

We are pleased to introduce this Special Issue dedicated to the exploration of the "Fatigue and Fracture of Welded Structures". This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for researchers to share their latest findings and advancements in the study of the fatigue and fracture of welded structures.

We hope to promote interdisciplinary research, encourage the development of new testing and analysis methods, and deepen our understanding of fatigue and fracture mechanisms in welded structures. Potential authors are invited to submit original research articles, review papers, and case studies that address topics such as welding processes and their effects on fatigue and fracture, fatigue life prediction models, the fracture mechanics of welded joints, and innovative materials and technologies for improving the fatigue and fracture resistance of welded structures. By bringing together the latest research in this field, this Special Issue will contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the development of more reliable welded structures.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Zheng Liu
Dr. Hang Liang
Prof. Dr. Xin Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • welding technology
  • welding evaluation
  • fracture mechanics
  • fatigue crack propagation
  • fatigue
  • fracture toughness test
  • size effect
  • failure analysis
  • fatigue damage mechanism
  • digital image correlation method
  • stress–strain response
  • structural engineering
  • finite element analysis
  • engineering metallic materials
  • deformation analysis
  • multiscale simulation
  • microscopic characterization
  • life prediction

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 8707 KiB  
Article
Constraint Effect on Tensile and Fatigue Fracture of Coach Peel Specimens of Novel Aluminum–Steel Resistance Spot Welds
by Liting Shi and Xiangcheng Guo
Crystals 2025, 15(2), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15020163 - 8 Feb 2025
Viewed by 434
Abstract
In response to the growing demand for fuel economy and the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the automotive industry has embraced structural lightweighting through multi-material solutions. This poses challenges in joining dissimilar lightweight metals, such as aluminum alloys to steels. The effects [...] Read more.
In response to the growing demand for fuel economy and the imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the automotive industry has embraced structural lightweighting through multi-material solutions. This poses challenges in joining dissimilar lightweight metals, such as aluminum alloys to steels. The effects of the diameter of a weld nugget have been well documented, particularly in relation to its effects on the tensile strength, tensile fracture modes and fatigue behavior. For tensile shear specimens, various methods have been developed over the years to predict fracture modes by deriving the critical nugget diameter. However, these methods have proved inadequate for coach peel specimens, where a noteworthy observation is the occurrence of pull-out fracture modes with smaller weld nugget diameters than the critical diameter. In the present study, aluminum alloy sheets and steel sheets were resistance spot welded, achieving a deliberately reduced weld nugget diameter to induce an interfacial fracture mode in the tensile testing of coach peel specimens. Intriguingly, it was noted that fatigue fracture modes in the same coach peel specimens transitioned from pull-out to interfacial with decreasing applied loads, challenging conventional expectations. Furthermore, finite element analysis was performed, and the findings indicated that the fracture modes of the coach peel specimens were influenced not only by the diameter of the weld nugget but also by local stress states, specifically the stress triaxiality at the tips of the spot weld notches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fatigue and Fracture of Welded Structures)
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