BS 7608:2014+A1:2015

What is this BS 7608+A1 about?

BS 7608+A1 gives methods for assessing the fatigue life of parts of steel products that are subject to repeated fluctuations of stress. BS 7608+A1 is applicable to all areas of industrial application that are not covered by other British Standards containing fatigue assessment rules.

NOTE: Some British Standards have specific product acceptance tests for fatigue life, but do not have assessment rules. In such cases the guidance in this British Standard might be applicable for product development purposes.

BS 7608+A1 covers:

• Wrought steel material products
• Welds in fully machined areas of steel casting
• Ferritic alloy and low alloy steels
• Austenitic and duplex stainless steels
• Unprotected weathering steels
• Threaded fasteners

BS 7608+A1 is applicable to yield strengths in the range 200 N/mm2 to 960 N/mm2 and ultimate tensile strengths in the range 360 to 1 200 N/mm2 for material thicknesses 3 mm and greater.

Who is this BS 7608+A1 for?

BS 7608+A1 on guide to fatigue design and assessment of steel products useful for:

• Construction industry
• Contractor of steel
• Manufacture or supplier of steel products
• Test laboratories of steel products
• Civil engineer

Why should you use this BS 7608+A1?

Fatigue life is defined as the number of cycles that lead to the failure of a structural system

BS 7608+A1 aids fatigue life of steel helps the user to specify how long an object or material will last before completely failing because of concentrated stresses.

The fatigue design data in BS 7608+A1 are applicable to internal and external air environments. They are applicable to structural steel products exposed to seawater. This will help you to operate products at temperatures below the creep range of the steel.

Overall, BS 7608+A1 will help you to assume or predict load for design purposes including its magnitude and frequency, the life of the structure of steel, the environmental conditions and the nominal probability of failure.

What’s changed since the last update?

BS 7608:2014+A1:2015 supersedes BS 7608:2014, which is withdrawn.

BS 7608+A1 was a full revision of the standard, and introduced the following principal changes:

• Introduction of the hot-spot stress method with guidance on finite element stress analysis (FEA)
• New correction for both plate thickness and applied bending with allowance for welded joint proportions
• Additional weld details; some have been reclassified
• Comprehensive guidance on use of weld toe improvement methods
• New guidance on acceptance fatigue testing and statistical analysis of results