A FRACTURE PARAMETER FOR WELDED STRUCTURES WITH RESIDUAL-STRESSES

In this paper, a finite element procedure to determine a fracture para meter hd is presented for welded structures with consideration of resi dual stresses. The method is based on the energy difference of two cra cked solids with slightly different crack sizes. Our computational res ults show that J(1d) and the I integral agree well for a cracked plate without consideration of residual stresses. When the residual stresse s are considered, the values of J(1d) for different contours close to the crack tip in the cracked plate subject to remote tensile stresses are in good agreement. The computational results also indicate that fo r the given residual stress distribution, the values of J(1d) with con sideration of residual stresses are lower than those without considera tion of residual stresses for the cracked plate subject to large remot e tensile stresses.