Influence of stress relieving by vibration on the fatigue behaviour of welded joints in comparison to post-weld heat treatment

Constant amplitude fatigue tests with welded specimens under fully reversed four-point bending as well as under axial loading have shown that vibration stress relieving does not lead to a fatigue life improvement of welded parts when compared to the as-welded state. Thus, a substitution of thermal stress relieving by a vibration treatment is not successful. This was also proved by residual stress measurements in the welded parts studied in this paper.