Identifying residual stresses in laser welds by fatigue crack growth acceleration measurement

During laser welding, residual stresses are thermally induced. They can have strong impact on the fatigue behavior and fatigue life. A standardized measurement method for the fatigue crack growth rate was expanded to identify residual stress along the cracking path. The second derivative of the measured crack opening and in turn the crack acceleration corresponded well with distinct acceleration maxima and minima and accordingly with tensile and compressive stress, as was basically proven by numerical simulation. The method is simple and extendable. It provides valuable information, as was demonstrated for various situations.