Mc. Burstow et Ra. Ainsworth, COMPARISON OF ANALYTICAL, NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS OF DEEPLY CRACKED WELDED-JOINTS IN BENDING, Fatigue & fracture of engineering materials & structures, 18(2), 1995, pp. 221-234
This paper presents analytical and numerical solutions to the analysis
of welded specimens when loaded in three-point bending, and compares
the results with those obtained experimentally. In each case the crack
is located within the weld material, and runs parallel to the weld. T
wo analytical models are presented for deriving limit loads using slip
-line field theory. Due to the welding process, the material behaviour
in the weld-base interface is complex, and this is described in the a
nalytical solutions using a number of material zones. The analytical s
olutions also provide the eta and d(infinity), coefficients which are
used to determine the J and crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) para
meters. These solutions are then compared with numerical results obtai
ned using the finite element method. Good agreement is obtained betwee
n the numerical and analytical results, and it is shown that for overm
atched specimens a better analytical solution can be obtained by using
a slip-line field geometry which passes predominantly through the bas
e material. When the analytical eta solutions are applied to the exper
imental results it is shown that, in the case of undermatched weldment
s, J can be used as a fracture characterising parameter, but it cannot
be used in the case of an overmatched specimen.