FRACTURE-MECHANICS ANALYSIS FOR INHOMOGENEOUS MATERIAL BEHAVIOR

The J-integral is an important parameter for the ductile fracture mech anics assessment of components. With an appropriate modification it ma y even be applied to inhomogeneous materials where the material charac teristics may depend strongly on the location, e.g. in welded joints. Experimental and numerical investigations on fracture mechanics specim ens made from a welded joint including the heat affected zone show the influence of the different material parameters on the J-integral. Als o, the influence of residual stress on the J-integral and on other fra cture mechanics parameters is shown.