Fatigue strength of laser-welded foam-filled steel sandwich beams

Laser stake-welded steel sandwich panels are widely used in engineering due to their high stiffness-to-weight ratios. The welds are thinner than the plates they join so that there are two crack-like notches on each side of a weld. As a consequence, the welded joints are susceptible to fatigue. In this study, as a remedy to the fatigue problem, low-density H80-grade Divinycell polyvinylchloride foam is bonded adhesively to the voids of stakewelded web-core sandwich beams. The foam reduces shear-induced stresses in the stake-welds. The choice of Divinycell H80 is founded on earlier J-integral-based finite element fatigue assessments of sandwich panels. Empty and the H80-filled sandwich beams are tested in three-point-bending for stiffness, ultimate strength and fatigue (load ratio R= 0.05). The failure modes in the weld joint region are studied using scanning electron microscopy. The experimental results showthat the filling increases the stiffness of the sandwich beams by a factor of three while the weight is increased only by 6%. The ultimate strength is increased by 2.7 times. As for the fatigue behavior, the slope increases from m= 4.508 of empty panels tom= 7.321 of filled panelswhile the load level at 2 million cycles increases by a factor of 8.5. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.