Experimental and numerical study on the material constraint effect in pipeline steel welded joint

An in-depth analysis of the material constraint effect is crucial for accurately determining the constitutive relationship and safety evaluation of pipeline steel welded joint. Therefore, this work combines experiments and finite element simulations to study the constraint effect. Through the welding method, the weld specimens with different sizes and strength mismatch conditions are prepared. The microstructure and hardness distribution of the specimens are measured, and tensile tests based on the digital image correlation (DIC) technology are conducted. Finite element models of the weld specimens with different sizes and material parameters are established, followed by tensile simulations and detailed analysis. Based on the experiments and numerical simulations, the tensile strain responses, stress-strain curves, and material parameters of different weld specimens are obtained. The results show that the smaller the weld width, the more significant the effect of the material constraint. For undermatched welds, the calculated stress of the weld metal (WM) increases with the decrease of the weld width. Additionally, the calculated stress of WM also increases with the decrease of the mismatch coefficient, where the mismatch coefficient refers to the ratio of the yield strength of WM to that of the base metal (BM). Conversely, for overmatched welds, the calculated stress of WM decreases with the decrease of the weld width. The material constraint effect is also influenced by the mismatch condition of the weld. An increase in the mismatch coefficient reduces the effective range of the stress-strain curve obtainable for WM. To analyze the effect of the mismatch condition, it is necessary to comprehensively compare the yield strength and strain hardening capacity of each material. The width-to-thickness ratio of the weld specimen has little effect on the calculated stress of WM. The finite element simulation method can be used to correct the stress-strain curves obtained from the tests to achieve accurate constitutive relationships.