Study of residual stress in welds of dissimilar material and determination of fatigue strength limits of base metals)

The welding of dissimilar metals has many applications in industry. In special, in the food industry and nuclear industry, this type of joint, common between A36 carbon steel and austenitic stainless steel or between austenitic stainless steel and copper and its alloys, is always subject to analysis and special care to maintain equipments integrity. Thermal and dimensional variations during use of equipment that have dissimilar welds are always troubling because not always it is known the history of the manufacture or recovery, making the management of aging difficult. Advance knowledge of these variations through the knowledge of the fatigue life can greatly contribute in design, choice of manufacturing process, choice of consumables and obviously in the preservation and integrity of the equipment. This paper presents results achieved for the residual stresses in dissimilar welds and SNP curves relating tension with the number of cycles and the failure probability for four metals: electrolytic copper, austenitic AISI 304 and AISI 316L stainless steels and A36 carbon steel which were subsequently welded together.