Low Cycle Fatigue of T-Tubular Joints With In-Plane Bending Loading

Tubular T-joints were fatigue tested with in-plane bending loading. Six models were tested, three models with R-ratio of 0 and three with R = −1. Hot spot stress was measured for the brace and for the chord using the ECSC linear extrapolation procedure. Fatigue loading was applied in load control, to obtain through thickness cracking at a number of cycles in the range 3 000–64 000 cycles. The data were analysed and compared with the current fatigue design criteria for tubular joints.