Fracture and Structural Integrity e-ISSN 1971-8993 Open access
SI: From Microcracks to Structural Failure: Emerging Challenges in Fracture and Structural Integrity Vol. 20, No. 77 (2026)

Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints

Author and affiliation details
  • Santi Marchetta Corresponding author University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Messina, Italy ORCID iD0009-0002-5221-3553 santi.marchetta@studenti.unime.it
  • Pasqualino Corigliano University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Messina, Italy ORCID iD0000-0003-0319-048X
  • Giulia Palomba University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Messina, Italy ORCID iD0000-0003-1996-0880
  • Giacomo Risitano University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Messina, Italy
  • Dario Santonocito University of Messina, Department of Engineering, Messina, Italy
DOI
10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18
Pages
298-315
Published
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Published inVol. 20, No. 77 (2026)Go to the issue

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to validate the N-SIF, SED and ENS approaches for the fatigue design of austenitic stainless steel welded joints. Literature fatigue data for cruciform welded joints, originally expressed in terms of nominal stress, were first re-analysed through a finite element model in terms of N-SIF. The resulting fatigue limit was then used to determine the SED critical radius required for the application of the SED approach. The same dataset was subsequently reprocessed in terms of SED. Finally, a second finite element model was implemented to calculate the ENS values. The N-SIF and SED approaches led to a more unified representation of the fatigue behaviour compared to nominal stress, showing a noticeable reduction in data scatter. In contrast, the ENS method exhibited a significant dispersion for the investigated joints, possibly due to material-specific effects and to the geometric regularisation introduced by the fictitious notch radius. Although the available dataset is limited to root failures in cruciform joints, the results suggest promising applicability of fracture-mechanics-based local approaches to austenitic stainless steel welded joints, while indicating that further validation of the ENS method is required.

Keywords

Article history

  1. ReceivedUntil the next stage: 69 days
  2. RevisedUntil the next stage: 13 days
  3. AcceptedUntil the next stage: 2 days
  4. Published

How to cite

APA

Marchetta, S., Corigliano, P., Palomba, G., Risitano, G., & Santonocito, D. (2026). Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints. Fracture and Structural Integrity, 20(77), 298–315. https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18

IEEE

S. Marchetta, P. Corigliano, G. Palomba, G. Risitano, and D. Santonocito, “Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints,” Fracture and Structural Integrity, vol. 20, no. 77, pp. 298–315, 2026, doi: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18.

MLA

Marchetta, Santi, et al. “Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints.” Fracture and Structural Integrity, vol. 20, no. 77, 2026, pp. 298–315. https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18.

Chicago

Marchetta, Santi, Pasqualino Corigliano, Giulia Palomba, Giacomo Risitano, and Dario Santonocito. 2026. “Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints.” Fracture and Structural Integrity 20 (77): 298–315. https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18.

Harvard

Marchetta, S., Corigliano, P., Palomba, G., Risitano, G. and Santonocito, D. (2026) ‘Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints’, Fracture and Structural Integrity, 20(77), pp. 298–315. doi: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18.

Vancouver

Marchetta S, Corigliano P, Palomba G, Risitano G, Santonocito D. Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints. Fracture and Structural Integrity. 2026;20(77):298-315. doi:10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18

BibTeX

@article{marchetta2026, author = {Marchetta, Santi and Corigliano, Pasqualino and Palomba, Giulia and Risitano, Giacomo and Santonocito, Dario}, title = {Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints}, journal = {Fracture and Structural Integrity}, year = {2026}, volume = {20}, number = {77}, pages = {298--315}, doi = {10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18}, issn = {1971-8993} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Marchetta, Santi AU - Corigliano, Pasqualino AU - Palomba, Giulia AU - Risitano, Giacomo AU - Santonocito, Dario TI - Validation of Notch-Stress Intensity Factor, Strain Energy Density and Effective Notch Stress approaches in fatigue life assessment of austenitic steel welded joints JO - Fracture and Structural Integrity T2 - Fracture and Structural Integrity PY - 2026 DA - 2026/05/23 VL - 20 IS - 77 SP - 298 EP - 315 DO - 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18 UR - https://doi.org/10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18 SN - 1971-8993 ER -

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

May be shared and adapted, provided appropriate credit is given. Copyright © 2026 Santi Marchetta, Pasqualino Corigliano, Giulia Palomba, Giacomo Risitano, Dario Santonocito.

Copyright 
Authors are allowed to retain both the copyright and the publishing rights of their articles without restrictions.  

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