LIMIT LOAD AND J‐ESTIMATES FOR IDEALISED PROBLEMS OF DEEPLY CRACKED WELDED JOINTS IN PLANE‐STRAIN BENDING AND TENSION

Using simple assumed deformation fields, approximate solutions have been obtained for tension and bending specimens containing welds for both limit loads and for fully plastic proportionality coefficients between the singular field amplitude J and the strain energy. The solutions allow for the degree of over or undermatch in the material tensile properties of the weld metal relative to the parent steel, and for the size of the weld region relative to the remaining ligament ahead of the crack. Detailed finite-element analyses have been performed for particular values of under/over-match and size of weld region. These refine the approximate analytical solutions for the particular cases examined, and show broad agreement with the trends predicted by the analytical models. The results have been used to provide guidance for testing weldments using standard, bend-type geometries. For small-specimen testing, cracks should be sufficiently deep for the remaining ligament ahead of a centrally located crack to be less than the total width of the weld. For large specimens, the weld region should be less than 20% of the size of the remaining ligament. If these guidelines are followed then standard relationships may be used to derive J from the area under the load-displacement curve. Common advice that the tensile properties of the weaker material in a weldment should be used in J-estimation techniques has been shown to be appropriate in many cases. However, the advice is likely to be overconservative when plastic deformation is predominantly in the weld even for overmatched weld properties, or predominantly in base metal even for undermatched weld properties. The results in the paper enable such cases to be identified.