Fatigue tests and design of thin CHS–SHS T-joints under cyclic in-plane bending

Agricultural equipments, such as linkage graders, haymakers, swing-ploughs, bale handlers and road transport equipments, such as road trailers, traffic sign supports and lighting poles are manufactured using welded thin-walled (t<4 mm) hollow section connections. There are currently no fatigue design rules for nodal joints made up of thicknesses less than 4 mm in existing fatigue design standards such as CIDECT Design Guide No.8. Previous research on welded thin-walled joints covered plate-to-SHS (square hollow section) and SHS-to-SHS T-joints. This paper describes fatigue tests on T-joints made up of thin-walled (t<4 mm) SHS chords and circular hollow section (CHS) braces, namely CHS–SHS T-joints. The joints were tested under constant stress amplitude cyclic in-plane bending in the brace. In all the 18 CHS–SHS T-joints tested, chord-tension-side failure mode was observed. Using the experimental stress concentration factors (SCFs) obtained through stress distribution measurement at weld toes in the chord and SCFs from existing parametric equations, fatigue design recommendations are proposed.