Short crack propagation from weld defect

Project description

In this project, the growth of short cracks is investigated in welded connections. During welding, defects can arise which additionally reduce the service life for structures exposed to cyclic loading. Furthermore, the welding induced residual stresses influence the fatigue performances as well. Therefore, the effect of residual stresses and weld defects are included in the scope of this research for the growth of a physically short crack towards the mode 1 crack. Numerical models will be created to predict the growth of short cracks from detected welded defects. Experimental research will be performed in order to validate the results obtained regarding the residual stresses and crack propagation analysis for short cracks.

TU Delft investigators: David Malschaert, Dr. Anis Mohabeddine, Prof. Milan Veljkovic

External supervisor: Prof. Johan Maljaars, TNO/TUe

Ongoing experiments at TU Delft (2023-2024)

The experiments consist welded small scale specimens under conditions that may lead to weld defects such as cold cracks, porosity and slag inclusion. Furthermore, crack growth from an initiated crack at these defects will be monitored. The growth of the mixed mode crack towards the mode 1 crack will be recorded as well as the accompanying number of loading cycles.