Opatija, 1999.

5th INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON PRODUCTION ENGINEERING CIM 99

FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF WELDED JOINT

WITH CRACK-TIP IN THE HEAT AFFECTED ZONE

Draan Kozak

M.Sc.Mech.Eng. D. Kozak, University of Osijek, Mechanical Engineering Faculty,

Trg I.B.Maurani 18, HR-35000 Slavonski Brod, Croatia, E-mail: dkozak@brod.sfsb.hr

Keywords: high strength steels, welded joint, strength mismatching, finite element
method, crack, fracture mechanics

ABSTRACT
The possibility of failure of welded structures is depending on fracture mechanics
properties of weld joints. The aim of this paper was to determine appropriate numerical
model to simulate the experimental evaluation of fracture mechanics specimens. To this
purpose, standard BxB single edge notch bend (SENB) three points bend (TPB)
specimens made with surface notch tip in the heat affected zone (HAZ) were applied. The
X-grooved welded joint is homogenous with the strength higher then base material
(overmatching). The comparison between numerical and known experimental results is
done by using measured values of fracture behaviour as are crack tip opening
displacement (CTOD), load line displacement (LLD) and crack mouth opening
displacement (CMOD). The finite elements results shown that using of described
numerical procedure for threshold determination of safe load for real welded different
structures is possible.

1. INTRODUCTION
The actual approach to welding of high strength low allow (HSLA) steels
recommends in some cases preheating and welding by electrodes, which produce higher
yield strength of weld metal compared to parent metal. Preheating reduces the cold
cracking susceptibility and overmatching has a protective effect, preventing growth of
planar cracks or other defects in a weldment (N.Gubeljak, 1999). Anyhow, welding of
HSLA steels with yield strength above 700 MPa is questionable, because it is difficult to
produce electrode that provides high toughness and protective effect regarding crack
initiation and growth in a weldment. According this, it is necessary to investigate fracture
behaviour of such produced welded joints, particularly in the case of limited ability of

Published by: R.Cebalo & H. Schulz Ed.

5th INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON PRODUCTION ENGINEERING CIM 99
Croatian Association of Production Engineering, Zagreb 1999.
2 M.Sc.Mech.Eng. D. Kozak

deviation (f.e. constraint is greater in the case of three point bending than in tension mode
of loading). The shape of weld gap can also play significant influence on increasing of
constraint, so X-grooved welded joint may be a barrier (R.J.Dexter, 1996) to the further
plastic flow, because a locally overmatched HAZ may act as a barrier against plastic
deformation in the base metal. Therefore, the most critical fracture behaviour of
specimens with crack tip in HAZ can be expected (C.Thaulow and M.Toyoda, 1996).
The examinations of standard fracture mechanics specimens are very expensive in
the rule and require appropriate equipment and qualified staff. In the other hand, the
numerical simulation of the fracture investigation is cheaper and asked just one computer
or workstation with installed some finite elements package and expert with experience in
modelling of fracture problems. The many of today used numerical conventional programs
(e.i. ABAQUS, IDEAS, NISA, ANSYS etc.) are applied to evaluate fracture mechanics
parameters. The aim of this paper is to mark difficulties by numerical modelling of
strength mismatched welded joints with crack-tip in HAZ and to propose the procedure for
the valid determination of fracture behaviour.

2. THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

HSLA steel NIONICRAL 70A, corresponding to grade HT80 produced by
Steelworks Jesenice - Slovenia as the base metal (BM) has been chosen. Welding was
done on plate samples (500x250x40 mm) by Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) process
(CO2 shield gas) producing one overmatched (Weltec B 800 electrode) homogenous
multipass X-grooved welded joint.
2100

1800

1500
True stress, MPa

1200

900 weld metal

base metal
600 HAZ metal

300

0
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
True strain, -

Fig. 1 True stress-strain diagrams for BM, weld metal and HAZ metal
Finite element model of welded joint with crack-tip in heat affected zone 3

Round tensile specimens (5mm) extracted from a real welded plate for the
determination of mechanical properties of BM and weld metal region was used. It is very
important to get true stress-strain curves for both materials because these data have a
great influence on the later numerical simulation accuracy. True stress-strains diagrams
for BM, weld metal and metal of HAZ on the Fig. 1 are given.
The most difficult to achieve is correct determination of HAZ behaviour. One of the
possible approaches is to transform data of measured microhardness to the strength
properties by correlated formulae (N. Gubeljak, 1998):

R p 0.2 3,1 HV0.1 (0,1) n 80 (1)

n
R m 3,5HV0.1 (1-n ) (12,5 )- 92 ( 2)
1-n
where Rp0.2 [MPa] is yield strength, Rm [MPa] is ultimate strength, HV0.1 is Vickers
microhardness and n is strain hardening coefficient related to t8/5 [s]:

n 0,065 ( t 8 / 5 ) 0,17 (3)

Assessment of the effect of different microstructures on fracture behaviour was

obtained by positioning of the pre-crack in HAZ. Standard BxB (B=W=36 mm) single edge
notched bend (SENB) specimens (a0/W=0,29) with surface notch tip completely in the
HAZ were fatigue pre-cracked from the surface up to HAZ, Fig. 2. The crack front was
located 5 mm distant from the symmetry of welded joint. During the test, the load F, load
line displacement LLD, crack-tip opening displacement CTOD (5) and crack mouth
opening displacement (CMOD) were recorded. Measuring points are marked on specimen
surface, Fig. 3. Experimentally obtained values will be compared with finite element
results assessing accuracy of proposed numerical procedure.

Fig. 2 Location of fatigue pre-crack tip

4 M.Sc.Mech.Eng. D. Kozak

F
B

W=B=36
a

5
CMOD
D
4W

Fig. 3 Three point bending specimen and measuring points (CMOD, CTOD (5))

3. THE NUMERICAL MODELLING OF SPECIMEN

Considering the aim of this paper finite element model of evaluated specimen by
FEM commercial package ANSYS 5.3 was prepared. The 2-D front of model was build up
by down to top technique. This means that first key points of three weldment zones
(weld metal, 1,5 mm thick HAZ and base metal) must be defined. Further, these key
points are connected with lines, which make the geometry of fracture model (Fig. 4).

Crack-tip located in
the HAZ

Fig. 4 Geometry of model drawn from lines

The stress-strain curves introduced in the finite element code as a set of numerical data,
are the true stress strain curves drawn from the tensile tests previously presented. For
different zones of weldment appropriate set of material data was associated.
The most important in a fracture model is the region around the edge of the crack. Crack-
tip located in the HAZ as the stress concentration was generated with eight singular
Finite element model of welded joint with crack-tip in heat affected zone 5

circumferential elements in the first row. For reasonable results, the first row of elements
around the crack tip should have a radius of 50 m (C. Ruggieri et all, 1996). The model
was discretisate by so called free meshing technique with 8-node second-order
isoparametric elements. The finite element model shown on the Fig. 5 consist from 1113
elements and 3402 nodes. Enlarged detail of fine mesh around crack-tip on the Fig. 6 is
presented.

Fig. 5 Finite element model of fracture specimen with crack-tip in the HAZ

1,5mm

Base
metal Crack-tip

Weld
metal

HAZ

Fig. 6 Detail of singular collapsed elements around crack-tip

6 M.Sc.Mech.Eng. D. Kozak

At the surface of specimen nodes are specified, which correspond to measure points for
LLD, 5 and CMOD. Elastic plastic finite element calculations have been performed with
incremental increasing of loading. As the yielding criteria von Mises equivalent stress was
applied.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The fracture behaviour of specimen has been calculated with quasistatic

increasing of load up to the point of experimental instability. Except calculated
displacements at specified points and maximum equivalent stress, it is very useful to
analyse stress-strain fields at surface of specimen at the moment of failure instability.
Such analysis making possible to find out the reasons for collapse of structure, what is
impossible just with experimental work (D. Kozak, 1998).
The acceptable agreement between experimental and numerical values for
displacements (LLD, 5 and CMOD) confirms proposed finite element model (Figs. 6 and
7). Actually, with FE results is possible to follow to curves obtained by experiment.

F, kN

120

100

80

60

40
Exp. results
FEM results
20

0
0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 LLD, mm

Fig. 6 The comparison between experimental and numerical results for LLD
Finite element model of welded joint with crack-tip in heat affected zone 7

F, kN

120

100

80

60

40
Exp. results
FEM results
20

5, mm CMOD, mm
0
0,03 0,06 0,09 0 0,12 0,24 0,36

Fig. 7 The comparison between experimental and numerical results for 5 and CMOD

It is interesting to look at stress-strain condition at the moment of instability corresponds to

ones at the moment of cleavage failure initiation on testing specimen. The observations of
equivalent von Mises stress field at maximal load (117 kN -- to je netono, jer je za ovu
epruvetu max. sila bila 164,49 kN !!!!!!!!!!!) show that fracture appears although the utility
of plastic flow in weld gap is not finished (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7 Von Mises equivalent stress field at the moment of instability failure
8 M.Sc.Mech.Eng. D. Kozak

5. CONCLUSIONS
Performed finite element analysis of weldment with crack-tip located in the HAZ
are exhibiting understand good agreement between FE calculated displacements and
experimental measured values. Also the stress-strain condition at the crack tip can be
numerical calculated and realistic presented in the moment of failure instability.
Considering the previous work is evident that used finite element calculation procedure is
appropriate not just for mismatching welded joints with crack-tip in the weld metal but also
with crack-tip in the HAZ.
Analysing the results it can be concluded that the shape and width of weld joint are
strongly effected by constraint effect in the weld joint. In the case of a locally overmatched
HAZ with respect to the weld metal, the HAZ will act a barrier against plastic deformation
in the base metal. Because of HAZ, following the shape of weld gap, the initiation of
instability began when the contour of plastic flow comes to near fusion line. It seems that
unstable fracture occur when the utility of plastic flow in weld gap is finished.

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This investigation was performed under joint Croatian-Slovenian project,
conducted by the Mechanical Engineering Faculty, Slavonski Brod and Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, Maribor. The work was supported too by stimulated grants for
young scientists of Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Croatia Nr. 152-504.
The author acknowledges many useful discussions and contributions of Prof. Dr. I. Rak,
Prof. Dr. F. Matejiek and Dr. N. Gubeljak.

7. LITERATURE
/1/ Fracture Behaviour of Specimens with Surface Notch Tip in the Heat Affected Zone
(HAZ) of Strength Mis-Matched Welded Joints, to be published in the International Journal
of Fracture
/2/ Significance of Strength Undermatching of Welds in Structural Behaviour, IIW Doc. X-
F-042-96
/3/ Strength Mis-Match Effect on Fracture Behaviour of HAZ, 2 nd International Symposium
on Mis-Matching of Welds, Reinstorf-Lneburg
/4/ The Effect of Strength Mis-Match on Welded Joint Fracture Behaviour, Dissertation,
University of Maribor
/5/ Numerical Modelling of Ductile Crack Growth in 3-D Using Computational Cell
Elements, International Journal of Fracture 82, pp. 67-95
/6/ Modified Numerical Modelling of Fracture Behaviour of Weld Joint in Ductile-to-Brittle
Temperature Transition Region, KOVINE ZLITINE TEHNOLOGIJE, Vol. 82, No. 5, pp.
337-342