Influence of Weld Residual Stresses on Ductile Crack Behavior in AISI Type 316LN Stainless Steel Weld Joint

Welding residual stress is one of the main concerns in the process of fabrication and operation because of failures in welded steel joints due to its potential effect on structural integrity. This work focuses on the effect of welding residual stress on the ductile crack growth behavior in AISI 316LN welded CT specimens. Two-dimensional plane strain model has been used to simulate the CT specimen. X-ray diffraction technique is used to obtain residual stress value at the SS 316LN weld joint. The GTN model has been employed to estimate the ductile crack growth behavior in the CT-specimen. Results show that residual stresses influence the ductile crack growth behavior. The effect of residual stress has also been investigated for cases with different initial void volume fraction, crack lengths.