Low-cycle fatigue behavior of fiber-laser welded, corrosion-resistant, high-strength low alloy sheet steel

Advanced laser welding techniques such as fiber laser welding are desirable for joining high-strength steels in ground vehicle applications since they can greatly increase productivity. Weld fatigue is a primary design consideration for implementation of laser-welded sheet into ground vehicle structures. However, much of the previous fatigue work on fiber laser welded sheet steel has utilized stress-controlled fatigue testing. Therefore, this paper presents an optimized fiber laser welding procedure for butt welds of high-strength low-alloy steel sheet, and subsequent fully-reversed, strain-controlled low-cycle fatigue testing on weld material. Existing low cycle fatigue models adequately describe fatigue behavior of the laser welds. The results show that weld low cycle fatigue strength is significantly increased relative to base metal due to formation of martensite in the weld caused by rapid cooling inherent to laser welding. Weld fatigue life was shorter than base metal when plastic strains were high, but was close to base metal at lower plastic strains. Fatigue specimens containing weld failed at both base metal and in the weld indicating that there is some competition between weld cyclic fatigue strength and stress concentration effect at the weld fusion zone.