This study examines the effect of Type-B liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracks on high-cycle fatigue resistance of a spot-welded plate of transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steel. Tensile shear and cross tension were employed to simulate a spot-welded component subjected to a complex state of stress. Interestingly, neither the existence nor the depth of Type-B LME cracks changed the high-cycle fatigue resistance of the spot-welded samples under the two deformation modes tested. The finite-element analysis revealed the formation of maximum local stress at the sample notch, which acted as a crack-initiation site. It should be noted that this site was not changed even upon adding a Type-B LME crack to the simulation model.
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