FRACTURE AND RESIDUAL STRESS BEHAVIOR OF STAINLESS STEEL WELDED PLATES: EXPERIMENTAL AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES

摘要

Experimental and finite element analyses are combined to study fracture and residual stress behavior of stainless steel AISI304 welded plates. As the first step, 4 mm thick plates are TIG butt welded and residual stresses are experimentally evaluated. For the FEM computation, a rectangular plate is modeled with a mesh following the shape characteristics of the intended through thickness crack. In order to get a residual stress field, similar to one experimentally evaluated, plastic strains are induced in the modeled plate, by applying external displacements. By deactivating some of the finite elements, a crack is simulated and a modified residual stress field is obtained. By deactivating more elements, the crack grows and the residual stress field changes. As the crack length increases, the residual stresses and the stress intensity factors are evaluated. The finite element results were compared to the experimental ones, showing good agreement.