Stress Intensity Factors For Cracks At The Toes Of Transverse Butt Welds

TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 88/1979

By T R Gurney

Background

The report gives the results of further finite element analyses of transverse butt welds with idealised forms of weld overfill. The work has been restricted to analyses, with a relatively fine mesh, of the region around the weld toe, using as input data the boundary deflections calculated in earlier work with a coarse mesh.

It is shown that the value of M_k (the factor by which the stress concentration at the weld toe increases K) can be represented by a simple relationship which is capable of being integrated analytically when used in the Paris fatigue crack propagation equation.