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Fracture Behavior of Load-carrying Fillet Welded Joints Subjected to Tensile Loads

  • Research Article-Civil Engineering
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Abstract

For load-carrying fillet welded joints, the fracture due to the crack propagation near the root takes place frequently in practical engineering. Given the essential role of welded joints in Tee configurations with double-sided and single-sided welds, the assessments of the fracture behavior of such joints and the stress intensity factors (SIFs) related to the crack opening (mode-I) fracture and the sliding or shear (mode-II) fracture are the main topic of this study. A planar structure finite element model incorporating the crack body with the singularity in front of the crack tip is developed to simulate the failure at weld root due to the presence of non-penetrating regions. Effects of the fillet angle (θf), the effective weld throat thickness (he), the thicknesses of the main plate (tp) and the cross plate (tc) on SIFs are analyzed. The results show that the effect of he/tp has a significant effect on SIFs and becomes more obvious as the crack is propagated at the weld root and inside the fillet weld. The increase of θf significantly amplifies the SIFs especially for the fracture mode related to KII. The effect of tc/tp is insignificant for the fracture mode related to KI while its amplification results in a moderate increase of KII especially for the single-sided fillet welds.

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Abbreviations

θ, r :

Angle and radius of the area of singularity at the crack tip, respectively

θ f :

Fillet angle

f(θ):

Angular function of near tip fields

σ x, σ y :

Stress components in x and y directions

σ m :

Nominal tensile stresses applied on main plate and converted from Ft/tpBp, respectively

τ xy :

Shear stress component

χ :

Constant for plain stress state

υ :

Poisson’s ratio

SIF:

Stress intensity factor

a :

Length of surface crack

B p :

Width of main plate

E :

Elastic modulus

F t :

Load applied on the main plate, respectively

f k :

Non-dimensional correction factor for cruciform shape

G :

Strain energy release rate

h e, h f :

Sizes of effective weld throat and weld leg assuming fillet angle of 45°, respectively

H c, H m :

Fillet leg lengths at the cross plate and the main plate, respectively

K I, K II :

Mode-I and mode-II stress intensity factors

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Acknowledgements

The authors are most grateful to the financial support provided by Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program (Grant No. 2020YJ0307), China Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) (Grant No. 2018-K9-004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Deep Underground Science and Engineering (Ministry of Education), School of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Yunzhong Shi & Zhiyu Wang

  2. China Railway Erju Group Decoration and Fitment Engineering Co., LTD, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Mingde He, Ke Zhu & Naijie Wang

  3. Failure Mechanics and Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Yunzhong Shi & Zhiyu Wang

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  1. Yunzhong Shi
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  2. Zhiyu Wang
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Correspondence to Zhiyu Wang.

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Shi, Y., Wang, Z., He, M. et al. Fracture Behavior of Load-carrying Fillet Welded Joints Subjected to Tensile Loads. Arab J Sci Eng 47, 4531–4543 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-06164-8

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