TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 280/1985
By S J Maddox and J A Padilla
Background
A limited investigation of the use of abrasive water-jet erosion for removal of the weld toe region to improve the fatigue lives of fillet welds was performed. Test specimens were made from structural C-Mn steel and four different water-jet erosion conditions were used. Fatigue life increases were obtained for all conditions although the increase was only significant for applied stress ranges below 200N/mm2. The improvement was comparable with that achieved by conventional dressing methods (grinding or remelting) but the water-jet erosion process was typically 10 times faster.