Influence of Welding Residual Stress on Stress Intensity Factor of Two-dimensional Cracks

In this paper, a butt-welded plate with cracks of different sizes and locations was used to analyze the crack propagation in the residual stress field. A two-dimensional finite element model was established to study the distributions of stress intensity factor along crack front in the residual stress field. Several cases with different crack lengths and angles were investigated. It was found that the distributions of stress intensity factor along crack front were very sensitive to residual stress. The methods and results presented in this paper are capable of providing a reference for the efficient assessment of the effect of residual stress field on the crack propagation behavior. It also implies that proper welding procedures are required for acceptable residual stress distributions to ensure prolonged service life of weldments.