Effect of material heterogeneity and constraint conditions on ductile fracture resistance of welded joint zones - Micromechanical assessment

The topic of this work is assessment of ductile fracture initiation and development in different zones of welded joint of a high strength low alloyed (HSLA) steel. A combined experimental-numerical procedure is applied for determination of properties of the weld metal and the heat affected zone - HAZ. One tensile specimen with rectangular cross-section is tested, and the surface strains are determined using stereometric 3D measurement (measurement system Gom Aramis with two cameras and software solution). This methodology enabled formation of the stress-strain curves for micromechanical analysis of fracture of specimens with initial fatigue pre-cracks. Two different geometries are considered: standard single-edge notched bend (SENB) specimens and surface-cracked tensile specimens. The cracks were positioned either in weld metal or in HAZ - within the fine-grained part. Micromechanical model (complete Gurson model, by Z.L. Zhang) is applied for assessment of crack growth onset and stable growth. Higher resistance to ductile fracture initiation and crack growth in HAZ is successfully predicted, as well as constraint effect caused by different crack shapes.