Numerical determination and experimental validation of the fracture toughness of welded joints

Most of the serious weldment failures lead to catastrophic consequences in terms of damage of other equipment, loss of production, and risks to workers' health and safety. Hence, there is motivation to find margin between safety and disaster. This necessitates guaranteeing the integrity of a welded structure even if a crack is present. Therefore, influence of the material inhomogeneity and residual stresses on deformation and fracture behavior needs to be described precisely. Fracture mechanics parameters J - integral and CTOD have attracted great interest in recent years. Two three point bending specimens of base metal (BM) and weld metal (WM) were tested according to standard BS EN ISO 15653. Than, a two dimensional finite element analysis was performed in Ansys Workbench software to calculate J-integral, and compare with experimental results. The aim of this work is to explore the possibility of using the test results in the reliable prediction of weldment fracture