Fatigue fracture investigation of a tube-to-tubesheet welded joint

A novel fatigue test specimen was developed to investigate the fatigue fracture behaviors of a shell and tube heat exchanger. It consists of a single tube and a tubesheet joined by welding and produces a tube-to-tubesheet welded joint. A fatigue test was conducted under tensile cyclic load. Defects were generated from the root of the joint and propagated with complicated crack front trajectories. Crack propagation (CP) simulation is performed to review the CP behavior using the extended finite element method (X-FEM). The experimental and numerical studies are succeeded to interpret the fundamental fracture characteristics of the welded joint.

Automated summary

A novel fatigue test specimen was developed to investigate the fatigue fracture behaviors of a shell and tube heat exchanger. The specimen consisted of a single tube and a tubesheet joined by welding to form a tube-to-tubesheet welded joint. A fatigue test was conducted under tensile cyclic load, and defects were generated from the root of the joint, propagating with complex crack front trajectories. Crack propagation (CP) simulation was performed using the extended finite element method (X-FEM) to study the CP behavior. The experimental and numerical studies successfully revealed the fundamental fracture characteristics of the welded joint.