Issue 77

S. Marchetta et alii, Fracture and Structural Integrity, 77 (2026) 298-315; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.77.18

for various materials but, to date, their applicability to austenitic stainless steel welded joints has not been thoroughly investigated.

a)

b)

c) Figure 13: Fatigue life of austenitic steel welded joints expressed in terms of: a) nominal stress; b) N-SIF; c) SED This work represents an initial step toward the applicability of N-SIF, SED and ENS to austenitic steel welded joints. In line with previous literature on other materials [29–33], the results obtained in the present study showed a significant reduction in fatigue data scatter when N-SIF and SED are applied, highlighting the capability of local parameters derived from fracture mechanics and energy-based formulations to provide a more unified treatment of different geometries and loading conditions. Conversely, the ENS approach exhibited a more pronounced dispersion in the analysed dataset, especially for thin joints characterised by smaller plate thickness and larger LOP length. This suggests that its applicability

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