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A B S T R A C T Rehabilitation of a welded structure, which involves repair of cracked joints, is achieved when the local treatment for repair gives a fatigue strength in the joint equal or above the fatigue strength of the uncracked original detail. If the treatment is properly applied the rehabilitation of the detail is assured, and the nature of the weld toe improvement methods can produce a joint, after repair, with a fatigue strength and residual life greater than the initial detail. The paper presents the results obtained on a fatigue study on the rehabilitation of non-load carrying fillet welded joints loaded in bending at the main plate and with fatigue cracking at the weld toes of the attachment in the main plate and though the plate thickness. Residual stresses were measured at the surface, with X-ray diffraction. The residual stresses induced by hammer peening at the weld toe were found to be greater along the longitudinal direction of the plate than in the transverse direction. The peak residual stresses near the weld toe were found to be close to yield in compression, justifying the great benefit of hammer peening. Results of a derived gain factor, g, in fatigue life were obtained as a function of the crack depth repaired by hammer peening.

The development and application of friction stir welding (FSW) technology in steel structures in the shipbuilding industry provide an effective tool of achieving superior joint integrity especially where reliability and damage tolerance are of major concerns. Since the shipbuilding components are inevitably subjected to dynamic or cyclic stresses in services, the fatigue properties of the friction stir welded joints must be properly evaluated to ensure the safety and longevity. This research intends to fulfill a clear knowledge gap that exists nowadays and, as such, it is dedicated to the study of welded steel shipbuilding joints in GL-A36 steel, with 4 mm thick. The fatigue resistance of base material and four plates in as-welded condition (using several different parameters, tools and pre-welding conditions) were investigated. The joints culminate globally with defect-free welds, from which tensile, microhardness, and fatigue analyses were performed. The fatigue tests were carried out with a constant amplitude loading, a stress ratio of R=0.1 and frequency between 100 and 120 Hz. The experimental results show the quality of the welding process applied to steel GL-A36 which is reflected in the mechanical properties of joints tested.

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This research work is based on analysis of the improvement of friction stir welded joints of the aerospace aluminium alloy AA2024-T351. Therefore, initially, the Taguchi method was used to obtain the optimal FSW parameters for improvement its mechanical behaviour. Then the fatigue resistance of base material, joints in as-welded condition and sound and defective FSW welded joints improved by grinding were detailed investigated. The influence of process parameters was addressed via statistical analysis of weld bead appearance parameters, mechanical tensile and bending resistance, metallurgical features and hardness field characterization. Validation tests demonstrate the Taguchi design's feasibility in the optimization of the FSW parameters and fatigue results show the resistance of improved welded joints overcoming base material.

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