Fracture analysis of strength-mismatched welded wide plates by line springelements

Higher utilization of structural materials leads to a need for accurate num erical tools for reliable prediction of structural response. Analysis with line spring finite elements is efficient in performing approximate fracture mechanics analysis of surface cracked shells. The present study addresses the performance of the line spring finite element utilized for describing a surface crack in a bimaterial elastic plastic wide plate structure. Some o utlines for the application of the line spring in a yield strength mismatch situation are obtained from a parameter study, and utilized for the two-di mensional (2D) discretization of welded wide plates, Large scale test resul ts are compared to the results obtained from both a 2D and 3D numerical ana lysis. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.